34. International Public Finance Conference
Is It Possible to Tax International Trade of Arms During The Crisis of the Tax State?
Feride Berna UymazGlobal taxes can be used primarily to restrict the production of goods that create negative externalities and/or international organizations which collect revenues of global taxes can use them to solve serious global problems. In this regard, the paper proposes application of semi tax by countries (quasi-taxes in the form of membership) in addition to taxing only military industries. In this case, also the exporting governments would be “taxed” by international agencies such as the International Organization for Migration. The paper also recommends that the tax revenue gathered from both sources should be used for people who have to migrate because of wars. Although an academic contribution can be made on the subject in this way, is it possible to apply this proposal in the real life? The main emphasis point of the paper is to discuss the current state of the capitalist system against theoretical solutions.
In this context, in the first part of the paper the data of the migrations resulting from wars in recent years will be presented and the deaths experienced during the illegal migration process will be pointed out. After discussing the theoretical framework of the loss in tax revenues expressed as the financial crisis of the state and the crisis of tax state, in the second chapter, the proposals for the taxation of arms trade will be presented, analyzed and discussed. In the third part, in addition to the taxation of arms industry, the “taxation“ of the arms exporting countries will be discussed as an alternative taxation. Thus, the paper aims to create a mechanism that can contribute to the economic problems of war migrants. Finally the paper draws attentions to the difficulties of implementation of global tax proposals along with the neoliberal policies which inhibits the activations of such proposals.