Blockchain taxation: the mutation of the principle of ability to pay in the era of algorithmic taxation

Abstract

This paper examines, from a constitutional and dogmatic standpoint and with particular attention to the Peruvian legal system, the prospective impact of blockchain technology on the ability-to-pay principle. It argues that the automated execution of tax obligations through smart contracts, a scenario still incipient yet technically plausible, compresses tax time and shifts the principle from an ex post, interpretive, and corrective operation toward an ex ante configuration embedded in the normative and algorithmic design of the tax system.

On that basis, the paper identifies tensions with the prohibition of confiscatory taxation, legal certainty, and the right of defense, advocates the constitutionalization of the tax algorithm and of the institutional oracle, and proposes, de lege ferenda, an algorithmic constitutionality test as a condition of validity of any automated taxation system.