A Socio-ethical Study in Taxes-The Justification and the Principle of Redistribution-

本研究有两个目的。第一个目的是对与税收有关的几个基本问题做出令人满意的解释：(1)税收是否合理以及如何征税；(2)通过税收进行财富再分配应该是什么样子。(1)政府无权从人民手中夺走他们所赚取的任何部分的观点仍然很受欢迎。另一方面，在那些认为征税是合理的人中，一些人呼吁通过税收促进公共利益，另一些人则声称公民有义务通过纳税等方式为社会做出贡献。关于税收正当性的问题还没有解决。(2)以我们现有的税制来说，大家都知道这种税制的其中一个作用，是在社会上重新分配财富。但关于正确的再分配方式或再分配与其他税收职能的关系，很少有人提及。本研究的两个目的中的第二个是勾勒出研究人员认为更理想的日本税收形式。在实现这两个目标的过程中，研究者利用了20世纪70年代以来在英语世界发生的关于社会正义的讨论的丰富结果。研究者非常同意Murphy&Nagel(所有权的神话：税收与正义，牛津大学，2002年)的观点。与政府在税收上不合理的观点相反，他们令人信服地辩称，这种观点是基于财产权的神话；相反，他们声称，指导税收政策的价值应该是社会公平，而不是税收公平。研究人员大致遵循墨菲和内格尔的路线，同时考虑到日本的特殊情况，勾勒出了一种更可取的日本税收政策形式。参见他的《卓越、正义与税收》(2004)。目前，这位研究人员正在更大范围内发展他的税收理论

The present study had two aims. The first aim was to give a satisfactory account of a couple of fundamental issues regarding taxes: (1)whether and how taxation is justified ; and (2)what the redistribution of wealth through taxes should be like.(1)The view that the government has no right to take away from people any part of what they have earned is still popular. Among those for whom taxation is justified, on the other hand, some appeal to public interests promoted by taxes, and others claim that citizens have a duty to contribute to the society by among other things, paying taxes. This question about the justification of taxes has not been settled yet. (2)Given the kind of tax system we have, it is widely recognized that one of the functions of such a tax system is to redistribute wealth in society. But little has been said as to the right way of redistribution or the relation of redistribution to other functions of taxes.The second of the two aims of the present study was to sketch what seems to the researcher to be a more desirable from of taxes in Japan. In achieving both these goals the researcher has utilized rich results of that discussion of social justice that has taken place in the English-speaking world since 1970's.The researcher is in great agreement with Murphy & Nagel (The Myth of Ownership : Taxes and Justice, Oxford, 2002). Against the view that the government is not justified in taxation, they convincingly argues that this view is based on a myth of property rights ; they instead claim that societal fairness, rather than tax fairness, should be the value that guides tax policy. The researcher has sketched a more desirable form of tax policies in Japan by generally following Murphy & Nagel's line and at the same time taking special circumstances of this country into consideration. See his 'Excellence, Justice and Taxation' (2004).Currently the researcher is developing his theory of taxes in a larger scale