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Cosmin MARINESCU
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
The challenge of the present paper is to discover whether economic science has the potential to “prescribe” an optimal taxation, both as system (progressive vs. flat tax) and as level. It attempts to explode several myths in the academic and popular wisdom: on the one side, that flat tax is the best way to fight against fiscal discrimination and welfare redistribution in society, and on the other side, that it is the modern source of economic prosperity. But, in order to analyse the optimal taxation problem, a historical and scientific framework of the tax nature is needed. As any other social product, taxation must be considered, first of all, from ethical point of view. Thus, only by subordinating the efficiency criteria (how is better?) to the ethical criteria (how is just?), the scholars are able to get the correct knowledge. So, we recognize that any fiscal arrangement involves, every time, discrimination and wealth redistribution. The entire public debate is focused on demonstrating the superiority of a certain taxation arrangement. In other words, which taxation system is the best, the one based on progressive taxation or the flat tax one? The present paper argues that choosing between them is, in fact, a false problem. In all these debates over the taxation nature, the so called specialists neglect the essential element: the overall tax burden on the economy. The real problem does not refer to the type of taxation, progressive or flat, but to the fiscal arrangement that socializes less private property in order to stimulate the capital accumulation, investments and entrepreneurship.

ŒCONOMICA no. 1/2009
Keywords: flat tax, optimal taxation, public choice theory
JEL: H11, H21
Optimul fiscal în imposibilitate metodo-logică