Philosophical Foundations of Taxes

The study aims to identify the various philosophical bases of exposing taxes, gather those bases in one comprehensive study, reach a new theoretical base and finally to create a new reference that can be acceptable by people and meets the countries' needs at the same time. In order to achieve such goals, the study have been divided into two chapters. The first chapter aims to address the definition of taxes through two sections. The first one aims to discuss the historical development of taxes through time. It addresses taxes during the old ages: Faro, Persian, Roman, Jahily, Islamic, Medieval, contemporary and finally the Jewish societies. However, the second section addresses the theoretical bases of putting taxes. That includes: traditional theories, rising costs theories, tax load theories, transferring tax load theories, legal theories, Islamic legislative theories, Christian legislative theories, tax equality theories and other contemporary theories. On the other hand, the second chapter aims to study the general context of tax regulations by two trends. The first addresses tax regulations in the temporary thought where the study identifies the definitions of: tax regulations, tax administration, the classification of taxes depending on the type of those taxes, alms, fees and tax policy. Anyhow, the second trend identifies the contemporary tax regulations, which basically is a variety of different intellectual bases. Those regulations are: the American, the Chinese, the French and the Saudi Arabian,the Palestinian Authority. Some of the most important results which this study have reached that taxes have been known for long time ago; it has been known since the first human civilizations on earth. Taxes first existed in the Faro, Persian and Roman ages. Back then, it has been called several names. Yet it carried same functions and characteristics. Moreover, many theories have been in different ages that discuss the reasons behind putting taxes At first, taxes have been looked at as a right of kings and princes. After that, taxes have been looked at as a contract between citizens and state. Later on, theories of putting taxes have been increased depending on the goals of those taxes. For instance, theories regarding tobacco, environment, optimal taxes and many others. Depending on the study results, the researcher recommends to adopt the self pertinence and commitment theory which suggests that citizens commit to pay their dues, and the state to offer the expected services. In addition, " taxes " term should be renamed as " contribution " which suggests a higher positive connotation than the term " taxes ".