The origins and stages of development of the body of tax-law norms towards a stable sectoral formation

The article analyzes the foundations and origins of tax-law regulation, as well as the stages of its development that led to the formation of an independent branch of law – tax law. The existence of various types of social relations determines not only their close interconnection but also the reflection of one type of social relation within another. Thus, legal relations governing taxation objectively reflect the corresponding state of economic relations and the economic understanding of the nature of taxation, which must be given appropriate legal expression. Under these conditions, the economic nature of taxation relations, as well as the content and character of the tax itself, when acquiring legal form, concentrates its significance and influence on regulating the behavior of participants in such relations. Law, as one of the forms of social regulation, is directed precisely at the actions and omissions of subjects within a framework of compliance with legal prescriptions, with corresponding consequences depending on whether legal norms are fulfilled or violated. Accordingly, the adequacy, rationality, and effectiveness of legal regulation directly depend on how accurately the legal form has “captured” the nature of the relations it is intended to regulate. It is evident that the premature emergence of legal forms does not allow for the functioning of a balanced legal construction, since, despite possessing a certain theoretical value, such a legal norm will lack practical significance and will not be used as an effective regulator of the behavior of participants in social relations. Thus, the dynamic character of tax regulation leads to the completed formation of a body of tax-law norms in accordance with the requirements arising from the development of social relations at a particular moment in time. It is hardly consistent to substantiate the exclusivity of a single codified act in the regulation of tax relations in a form that would absorb all other legislative acts. The Tax Code cannot serve as the sole act uniting all legislative norms in the field of taxation, at least because a certain number of such norms cannot result solely from the lawmaking procedures of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

tax law; norm of tax law; tax system; tax legislation