Journal of Economic and Social Dynamics

Abstract

The classical distinction between taxes and fees faces a silent crisis in modern public finance systems characterized by budgetary universality, non-earmarking, and treasury centralization. Law rigorously differentiates these categories of levies; administration collects them through specialized agencies; accounting preserves the memory of their origin; but the Treasury integrates their products into a unified cash pool where their monetary individuality weakens. This article constructs, tests, and delimits a theory of the functional relativity of public levies, according to which the substantive scope of the distinction depends on the stage observed, the institutional function exercised, and the dimension considered (legal, informational, or monetary). Three principles are developed: the principle of financial identity dilution, the principle of informational conservation, and the principle of functional dissociation. The institutional reform in Kinshasa the creation of the Provincial Tax Directorate (DGIPK) and the Directorate of Rights, Taxes and Fees (DGTK) replacing the DGRK constitutes an exceptionally rich institutional laboratory for testing this theory. The article demonstrates that the pertinent question is no longer “what is the difference between tax and fee?” but “at which stage, according to which function, and along which dimension does this difference remain substantive?”