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Funds collected will be refunded and not kept by the government: > Each resident in Austria will get an annual reimbursement, with the exact amount determined
by throw0101a 5y ago
Funds collected will be refunded and not kept by the government:
> Each resident in Austria will get an annual reimbursement, with the exact amount determined by where they live to ensure those in rural regions without good public transport don’t lose out. Children are entitled to half their parents’ amount — so a family of two adults and two children in Vienna could expect to get 300 euros ($358) for example.
While the term "tax" is used proverbially, if the government does not keep the money, it is actually a tax?
This was a constitutional question in Canada, and the majority of the Supreme Court ruled that it was not:
> As a final matter, the fuel and excess emission charges imposed by the GGPPA have a sufficient nexus with the regulatory scheme to be considered constitutionally valid regulatory charges. To be a regulatory charge, as opposed to a tax, a governmental levy with the characteristics of a tax must be connected to a regulatory scheme. The first step is to identify the existence of a relevant regulatory scheme; if such a scheme is found to exist, the second step is to establish a relationship between the charge and the scheme itself. Influencing behaviour is a valid purpose for a regulatory charge and regulatory charges need not reflect the cost of the scheme. The amount of a regulatory charge whose purpose is to alter behaviour is set at a level designed to proscribe, prohibit, or lend preference to a behaviour. Limiting such a charge to the recovery of costs would be incompatible with the design of a scheme of this nature. Nor must the revenues that are collected be used to further the purposes of the regulatory scheme. Rather, the required nexus with the scheme will exist where the charges themselves have a regulatory purpose. There is ample evidence that the fuel and excess emission charges imposed by Parts 1 and 2 of the GGPPA have a regulatory purpose. They cannot be characterized as taxes; rather, they are regulatory charges whose purpose is to advance the GGPPA’s regulatory purpose by altering behaviour.
[…]
> [219] In the instant case, there is ample evidence that the fuel and excess emission charges imposed by Parts 1 and 2 of the GGPPA have a regulatory purpose. Ontario does not assert, nor would such an assertion be supportable, that the levies in this case amount to disguised taxation. The GGPPA as a whole is directed to establishing minimum national standards of GHG price stringency to reduce GHG emissions, not to the generation of revenue. As Richards C.J.S. aptly observed, the GGPPA “could fully accomplish its objectives . . . without raising a cent”: para. 87. This is true of both Part 1 and Part 2. The levies imposed by Parts 1 and 2 of the GGPPA cannot be characterized as taxes; rather, they are regulatory charges whose purpose is to advance the GGPPA’s regulatory purpose by altering behaviour. The levies are constitutionally valid regulatory charges.
* https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2021/2021scc11/2021scc11.html https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2021/2021scc11/2021scc1...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_Gas_Pollution_Pricing_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_Gas_Pollution_Prici...
Canada is a federation, and the national and provincial governments each have their areas of responsibility. There were challenges whether there was federal over reach, and the court said there was not given the structure of the legislation.
* https://elc.ab.ca/i-read-the-carbon-tax-decision-so-you-dont-have-to-a-detailed-summary-of-the-main-issues/ https://elc.ab.ca/i-read-the-carbon-tax-decision-so-you-dont...
- AdrianB1 5y agoIt sounds more like a redistribution of some money based on some carbon criteria than a tax.
- caminante 5y agoAt the macro-level, yes. But aren't all taxes the re-distribution (gathering and disbursement) regardless of where the piles of money end up? At the micro/personal-level, it'd sure feel like a tax to me. The nuance here is Canada's constitution offers a framework to make a technical distinction argument and say (i) the federal Canadian govt. (ii) can impose this "tax" because it's a "regulatory scheme" via a catch-all authority provision outside its enumerated powers.
- throw0101a 5y ago> (ii) can impose this "tax" because it's a "regulatory scheme" via a catch-all authority provision outside its enumerated powers. The SCC ruled that it was under the federal government's enumerated powers, or rather the "peace, order, and good government" (POGG) provision: > Notably, the POGG power is a little different from the other subject matters listed under sections 91 and 92 of the Constitution, because it is a residual power, meaning that it allows the federal government to legislate over any subject that is not otherwise assigned to the federal or provincial governments under sections 91 and 92. To sort out exactly what this means, the courts have identified three possible uses of the POGG power, which are referred to as the three branches of POGG. They are: the emergency branch, the gap branch, and the national concern branch.[8] * https://elc.ab.ca/i-read-the-carbon-tax-decision-so-you-dont-have-to-a-detailed-summary-of-the-main-issues/ https://elc.ab.ca/i-read-the-carbon-tax-decision-so-you-dont... Different legal and constitutional traditions/fraem works may work differently. (Tautology is tautological…)
- caminante 5y ago> The SCC ruled that it was under the federal government's enumerated powers To clarify, I said the POGG was the catch-all provision. This is semantics and we directionally agree, but I wouldn't characterize the POGG as an "enumerated power". If the CA constitution explicitly said the CA federal govt. has the ability to place a federal carbon tax, then that'd be an enumerated power. Due to a lack of an enumerated federal carbon tax power, advocates had to rely on the [implied power from the] "catch all" POGG provision. Your article goes into why it's not an enumerated power (and consistent with my interpretation): > Very briefly, the federal and provincial governments get their power to pass legislation from sections 91 and 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867 respectively.[7] These two sections list a bunch of subject matters and, essentially, each government can only pass legislation dealing with the subjects that it has been assigned. This is why the provinces deal with health care and education, whereas the federal government deals with the criminal law and the military. All of your articles were interesting. Thank you. edit: Checking wikipedia about the context of Canada's POGG provision[0], there's more explanation as to why POGG's not an enumerated power, but this is all semantics and above my intellect. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace,_order,_and_good_government#Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace,_order,_and_good_governm...