Beyond regretting that, once again, an issue as key as education, when a new law was approved, could not be agreed, I want to focus on a relevant issue that has been the object of attention in the new regulation: the inclusion of tax education in secondary education, in the context of the contents that must be taught within the subject Civic and Ethical Values.
It is a question of great importance and very neglected in our country. Many citizens, encouraged from extreme liberal positions, continue to consider that taxes are nothing but a cost that we are forced to assume without much justification and that, if we can avoid them, the better, or at least that it is necessary to demand that the taxes that burden be lowered to taxpayers. The most extreme positions, even, make statements like that “the nature of taxes is closer to that of a theft than to that of a voluntary contribution or donation.” An outrage that seems to forget the meaning of taxes in democratic societies and the requirement of its approval through laws voted by the representatives of the citizens in Parliament. A little over a year ago, in an article published in The country with the title “Lower taxes”, insisted on the lack of meaning of these proposals, especially if we compare our levels of tax pressure with those of most of the countries that make up the current European Union.
Many people often forget that important issues such as street cleaning and lighting, garbage collection, taking care of parks and common areas, pensions, education (also arranged) or care in the centers of health or in hospital emergencies when we or our children get sick they would be impossible to maintain without paying taxes. In the same sense, without the payment of taxes it would have been unfeasible for the State to take charge of the expenses originated by the serious pandemic that we still suffer.
Of course, you have to ensure that these services work well, that there is no waste or unjustified diversion of resources or that the cases of corruption do not multiply. That is why it is essential to stimulate the evaluation of what the public sector does, to try to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of public services and benefits. Fortunately, increasingly, the academic and political media (serve as an example the work of AIReF to respect) deal with these issues, proposing multiple alternatives or improvements. But the demand for a more efficient public sector cannot be an excuse to question the obtaining of resources through taxes.
The payment of taxes is an essential characteristic of the concept of European citizenship and, in line with what the Spanish Constitution expresses in its article 31 – “Everyone will contribute to the support of public expenses in accordance with their economic capacity” -, I am a defender of the principle of generality in taxation. “Everyone,” says the Constitution, in a blunt and happy expression. We are only citizens of a social Europe if we enjoy a wide range of social services and benefits “and” in parallel, we pay the taxes with which they are financed.
If this were not the case, as unfortunately happens in other countries, an image of radical separation is offered. between two large groups of the population: those who apparently “do not pay taxes” and receive low-quality services, and those who “pay” them and do not use public services, because they have the means to obtain private services. In reality, things are not so simple, since indirect taxes, in one way or another, are paid by all people; But, in any case, societies as segmented as those mentioned, and increasingly polarized, can hardly guarantee social stability and security for their citizens.
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It is important that all people, from their early years, understand the reason for paying taxes, remembering, by all possible means, that the money paid in taxes serves to maintain and improve the goods and services received from the public powers. However, perhaps because we consider that we are already a developed country, we barely talk about taxes (if not to demand that they be lowered), we do not explain why we must pay them and we do not dedicate resources to educate the population about the need to comply with tax obligations and combat fraud and tax evasion.
Therefore, it is good news that the new educational law includes some reference to such a transcendent issue, and it seems to me a scandal that its incorporation into a discipline such as Civic and Ethical Values, included in the new law, can be criticized. That citizens are invited to participate consciously in the financing of public services and that, as the aforementioned Article 31 of the Constitution says, they do so according to their economic capacity, is a good way to reinforce the idea of social cohesion and justice that characterizes the European welfare state.
Jesus Ruiz-Huerta He is Professor of Economics and Director of the Laboratory of the Fundación Alternativas.
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