Smart Taxes

Human beings have multiple and distinct needs, primarily individual ones, which they naturally and personally seek to satisfy. However, to feel complete in their fullness, they necessarily need to live in community. In the context of this social interaction, some of these needs become collective, that is, only possible to satisfy by the group or relevant through solidarity. In these terms, a structure is constituted that, in defense of this same community and in accordance with what it defines, is responsible for providing the needs considered collective as well as for collecting the revenues that will enable the provision of the corresponding goods, with taxation occupying a prevalent function. The understanding of the appropriate decision-making of those who should exist, the manner of their execution and the appropriate correlation, always safeguarding the fundamental rights of citizens and their freedom of access to private goods, will be the objective of this module.

1. Concept, relevance, and structure of the State. 2. State, Organs of Sovereignty, and Administrative Organization. 3. Fundamental Principles of a Democratic Rule of Law State. 4. Main legal-political models (with emphasis on their respective economic and tax organization). 5. Fundamental rights of citizens, especially in the Portuguese Constitution. 6. Individual and collective needs. 7. Fundamental rights and collective needs in a community and the relevance of the State's financial activity in safeguarding and satisfying them. 8. State financial activity and the various branches of law in the financial context, especially tax law. 9. Constitutional principles of a tax nature and the powers of the Organs of Sovereignty in the tax sphere. 10. Tax administrative structure. 11. Public revenues, especially taxes (at the national and international levels). 12. Classification of taxes. 13. Stages of taxation. 14. The various categories of taxes and their stages.  

The aim is for students to understand the importance of living in solidarity within a community, the need for the State to collect tax revenue, especially income tax, to enable a proper quality of life and well-being within a context of guaranteed freedom for its citizens, as well as the appropriate use of taxes and their various classifications in achieving these objectives. In other words, to critically analyze and understand the intelligent way in which tax collection and the method of execution in the provision of goods can enhance the benefits attributed to the community and its members.