FISCAL SECURITY AND NON-COMPLIANT TAX CONDUCT

Abstract

Although the concept of national security has been extensively examined in scholarly literature, the notion of fiscal security has received limited academic attention. Fiscal security can be understood as a state of budgetary stability in which public financial interests are adequately safeguarded. Its core function is to ensure the availability of financial resources necessary for the stable and effective functioning of the state, and it represents a fundamental precondition for the effective implementation of public policies and the realization of governmental objectives. From this perspective, the level of fiscal security has effect directly over the level of national security, thereby requiring a thorough analysis of the concept.

Non-compliant tax conduct is a particularly serious threat to fiscal interests and has increasingly drawn the attention of the international community. Practices that circumvent and violate tax laws undermine the financial foundations of both the national security system and particularly in the European Union Member States. In addition to causing substantial losses to public budgets, such practices distort market competition, violate the interests of bona fide economic actors and the sustainable economic growth, and weaken public trust in the legitimacy of taxation and public governance in general. Developing a coherent theoretical framework for non-compliant tax conduct, including a clear distinction among various categories, as well as an analysis of their implications for national security, may improve legislative and law enforcement practices and strengthen inter-institutional cooperation.