Erciyes Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi

Abstract

The relationship between taxpayers and the state is inherently fraught with potential conflict, as taxes are compulsorily and without com-pensation extracted from taxpayers' assets by virtue of the state's so-vereign authority. According to the principle of legality of taxes, taxes are imposed, altered, or abolished by laws enacted by the legislative body, which is composed of representatives of the people. Even the acceptance that these taxes represent the will of the people does not alter this situation. In particular, the growing capacity of the admi-nistration to enact regulatory measures, which is extensively utilized in tax law, coupled with the methods and objectives of the state's expenditure of collected taxes, can be regarded as factors contributing to the taxpayer's reluctance to pay taxes. In this context, the concept of “governance,” originally introduced in the economic sphere, has increasingly begun to exert influence in the fields of administrative law and, naturally, tax law, leading to a transformation in the unidi-rectional relationship from the tax administration to the taxpayer, characterized by the governor-governed dynamic. Fundamentally, as governance is a concept that has evolved from administration, initi-ally, both concepts and the elements that have led to the differentia-tion in the evolution from administration to governance will be examined. Subsequently, the implications of the governance concept in the realm of Turkish tax law and the position of the tax administra-tion will be assessed.