Private Property and Constitutional Limits on the Taxing Power: An Overview of the Prohibition on Confiscatory Taxation in the Brazilian, German, Spanish, Argentine, and Mexican Legal Orders

Abstract

This paper examines the constitutional prohibition on confiscatory taxation in Brazilian law as a limit on state taxing power. Using doctrinal and comparative analysis, it explores the principle’s connection to property rights, the ability-to-pay principle, and minimum subsistence. The study finds that this prohibition, while explicit in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, is a common feature across the German, Spanish, Argentine, and Mexican legal systems, where it is protected either explicitly or implicitly through fundamental rights.