Sheild Johansson, Miranda; (2023) Taxes for Independence: Rejecting a Fiscal Model of Reciprocity in Peri-urban Bolivia. In: Makovicky, Nicolette and Smith, Robin, (eds.) Beyond the Social Contract: An Anthropology of Tax. (pp. 18-37). Berghahn Books: New York, NY, USA.

Preview

Text Taxes for Independence 2023..pdf - Published Version Download (248kB) | Preview

Abstract

In a grand, sunny courtyard surrounded by an imposing, pink, colonial-style building in the center of Cochabamba city, people line up to go through the door under a large sign that reads “Recaudaciones” (Collections). Clutching beige folders filled with property deeds, affidavits, and architectural plans, they wait for hours to enter the hall where the municipality collects taxes on real estate. The line reflects a cross-section of local society, including the comfortable middle classes and populations on lower incomes, many of whom self-identify as belonging to one of the indigenous language-speaking groups of highland Bolivia. Located not five minutes away is one of the city’s national tax offices, Impuestos (Servicio de Impuestos Nacionales), which collects income tax and value-added tax (VAT). In contrast with Recaudaciones, only a few people are lined up here, all of them middle-class professionals. To understand why certain taxes are paid and others are not—why the lines for Recaudaciones are long and those at Impuestos are short—it is necessary to disaggregate tax and examine the specific exchanges that each tax involves, as well as the various relationships and imaginaries that they are constituted by and conjure up.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as JSONCSVXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item