الحماية الجنائية لحق الدولة في جباية الضرائب في القانون الفلسطيني على ضوء الشريعة الإسلامية / إعداد، محمد رفيق مؤمن الشوبكي

Abstract

Taxation is one of the most important sources of public revenues, which is imposed by the state in cash and it is deducted from natural and juridical persons in a mandatory manner for public interest without any private benefit to them. The compulsion of persons to pay taxes requires criminalization of any conduct leads to evasion of payment of tax or violation of the rules of its performance. In recent years, the rate of tax crimes committed in Palestine has increased significantly. This study aims to examine the level of criminal protection of the right of state to collect taxes in Palestinian law in the light of Islamic law. To achieve this objective, the inductive and analytical methods were used to collect and analyse Sharia and law texts, sayings of jurists, views of law scholars and researchers and case law. The comparative method was also used to compare between Palestinian law and Islamic law in the most important issues related to the subject of research. Furthermore, the field study methodology was utilized through conducting thirty semi-structured interviews with participants from tax administration staff, taxpayers, justice authorities and regulatory agencies in order to strengthen the research with a set of information and practical opinions. The study showed vagueness of the legislative philosophy of tax laws applied in Palestine because they are inherited from different historical periods. These legislations are not uniform in Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which violates the principle of equality established by the Palestinian Basic Law. The increase in the percentage of tax crimes in Palestine is due to political reasons which are Israeli occupation and Palestinian political division, economic reasons in terms of high tax rates and multiplicity compared with the difficult economic conditions, administrative reasons which are weakness of capacities, lack of staff and efficiency, legislative reasons in terms of inadequate legislation and weak penalties, and special reasons for taxpayers which are lack of a sense of tax justice and lack of tax awareness. The study recommends the enhancement of the criminal protection of right of the state to collect taxes in Palestine. It also proposes three draft laws on combating tax, custom and zakat crimes.