The definition of tax obligation is a legal duty by means of which the taxes assigned by law to taxpayers are established, they must comply with the procedures where taxes are applied such as invoices, accounting records, tax declaration, etc.

The State needs income to allocate them to public expenses that is why it establishes two classes of fundamental resources called:

Original or patrimonial resources:

They are those that are obtained from their own capital or patrimony.

Derived resources:

It brings them from the patrimony of individuals or from the wealth belonging to entities outside the State, executing actions with the power of state imposition or fiscal sovereignty.

The State must attend to the public services , these are expenses financed through the collection of equivalent resources, within which the derived resources have equal importance, in most of the States they constitute the fundamental base of the public treasury.

Types of tax obligations

In the types of tax obligations they are divided into two: functional or material and substantial or formal .

In the functional or material obligation:

• The ancillary ones are late interest, surcharges or delays in the payment of a tax
• Their main representation corresponds to the payment of the tax percentage, that is, the value added tax VAT that goes to the Treasury.
• They are those that meet payments on account, that is, an advance of the tax payment is provided on the invoices.

In the substantial or formal obligation:

• They are established in the Tax Laws, it refers to the commitment that a natural or legal person has to comply with the tax contribution when presenting invoices.
• The procedures involved in the cancellation of taxes are described, from the forms submitted by public bodies to the accounting records.

The tax obligation is characterized by:

• Its patrimonial content is what constitutes its existence.
• The typical function it fulfills, which consists of providing the State with the income it needs for its operation.

Examples of tax liability

The tax obligation is a legal obligation, it is based on the cancellation of a tax included in the presentation of invoices or in the accounting record.

It involves the relationship between taxpayers, these are the ones who pay the tax and the public administration, is the one that collects the tax obligations.

It is a legal provision where natural persons and legal persons must make the payment of their contributions of taxes established by law.