Legitimising the illegitimate: a review of the libertarian accounts of taxation

This article analyses the libertarian accounts of taxation. It discussed how libertarians view taxation and why (and where) they disagree on certain points. While anarchist libertarians advocate the idea that taxation is never acceptable because they believe that the state itself possesses no legitimacy, minarchist libertarians believe that the state can have a legitimate role, and therefore that taxation can be accepted to the extent that there is no alternative to fund the state’s legitimate activities. This article argues that anarchist-libertarian views of taxation are untenable, and suggests that the furtherance of libertarian ideals on taxation is possible through: (1) taking ideas from other non-libertarian schools, particularly from the social contract theory of the state; and (2) advancing the minarchist-libertarian perspective from within the libertarian paradigm.