Virtue Ethics: Supplement to the Rule of Law in Taxation

Abstract

This chapter proposes that legal and technical tax provisions are inadequate for the purposes of creating a ‘just’ tax system. The chapter claims that ethical factors need to be addressed given their impact on taxpayers’ attitudes and behaviour. The proposal is to encompass normative ethics in order to supplement the rule of law, encouraging the use of virtue ethics to evaluate appropriate conduct. The chapter firstly considers what is meant by virtue ethics before turning to explain how it might be used to strengthen the rule of law considering contextual factors. It finishes by exploring what it means to act virtuously in the realm of taxation. Throughout the chapter the authors suggest that individuals use the virtues to morally evaluate rules and laws before slavishly implementing them. They argue that this will lead to better, fairer outcomes subject to the virtues, such as phronesis (practical wisdom), sophrosyne (temperance), dikaiosyne (justice) and andreia (courage) being deployed appropriately.