1.2 Concept of Fiscal Power and its Limitations

The fiscal power — the state's power to take-and-spend: the taxing power (the compulsory taking — the sovereignty's oldest attribute); the spending power; the borrowing power; the monetary's border (the NRB's domain). The limitations (the law's answers to the power's dangers): 1. The constitutional limits: the no-taxation-without-law principle (the tax's statutory basis — the parliament's monopoly); the annuality (the budget's year); the appropriation's discipline (the spending's authorisation); the federal division (the three-level fiscal powers of Arts 56-60's verified frame). 2. The rights' limits: the property's respect (the tax's due process — the proportionality's application). 3. The political limits: the parliament's control (the budget's passage; the accounts' scrutiny); the electorate's ultimate answer. 4. The international limits: the treaties' constraints (the WTO's bindings of the trade course).