Alors que de multiples compressions ont eu des effets négatifs sur le système public, illustrant la « rigueur budgétaire » des dernières années au Québec, nombreuses sont les pratiques permettant à plusieurs citoyens pourtant très bien nantis d’échapper légalement au fisc. Parmi celles-ci se trouve une stratégie fiscale relativement récente et de plus en plus utilisée: l’incorporation des professionnels. Ce mémoire, qui s’inscrit dans une perspective d’éthique sociale et économique, vise à remettre en question cette pratique fiscale d’un point de vue moral. Pour ce faire, nous soulignons d’abord les inégalités fiscales évidentes découlant d’un traitement différencié accordé aux professionnels. Comprenons, pour le dire simplement, que les avantages fiscaux liés au statut légal de l’incorporation sont pratiquement inaccessibles à plusieurs entrepreneurs prenant un réel risque financier dont la rémunération est de loin inférieure à une majorité de professionnels pouvant s’incorporer. Or, de telles inégalités posent des problèmes d’équité substantiels, lesquels sont abordés en deuxième partie de ce mémoire. En effet, en permettant l’abaissement du taux effectif d’imposition chez des professionnels bien situés dans l’échelle socio-économique, l’incorporation contrevient notamment à des principes de capacité de payer et à son interprétation possible du sacrifice égal. Enfin, dans la troisième partie de notre projet axée sur une perspective de justice distributive plus largement construite, nous remettons en question la position gouvernementale s’appuyant sur le principe de différence rawlsien et son argument des incitatifs économiques. Nous soulignons, d’une part, qu’une justification de l’incorporation basée sur ces incitatifs laisse place à de larges inégalités et est révélatrice d’une société dans laquelle s’opère une brèche dans la condition élémentaire de communauté. D’autre part, nous soutenons qu’une telle position va à l’encontre d’un ethos égalitariste que devraient promouvoir les citoyens et le gouvernement en respect au principe de différence et que, selon ce point de vue, permettre l’incorporation revient à cautionner une forte injustice. / While many budget cuts have dented public coffers, illustrating the "budgetary rigor" of recent years in Quebec, some fiscal practices allow very well-off citizens to legally reduce their tax burdens. Among them is a relatively recent and increasingly used tax strategy: the incorporation of professionals. This thesis aims to question this tax practice from a moral point of view. First, we empirically highlight socio-economic inequalities resulting from differential treatment granted to professionals. We assume that the tax advantages associated with the legal status of incorporation are practically inaccessible to many entrepreneurs who take real financial risks and whose remuneration is far less than most professionals who can incorporate. Such inequalities carry substantial equity problems, which will be discussed in the second section of this thesis. Indeed, with the lower effective tax rate of professionals well situated on the socio-economic scale, incorporation contravenes the principle of capacity to pay and its possible interpretation of equal sacrifice. Finally, in the third part of our project focusing on a broader perspective of distributive justice, we question the government's position based on the Rawlsian difference principle and its argument of economic incentives. On one hand, we emphasize that justifying incorporation by appeal to economic incentives leaves place to large inequalities and reveal a society in breach of elementary community condition. On the other, we argue that this viewpoint infringes an egalitarian ethos that should be promoted by the citizens and the government in accordance with the principle of difference and that, according to this view, allowing incorporation amounts to endorse a strong injustice.

Este estudo busca compreender a importância da fiscalidade colonial enquanto lócus privilegiado para a análise da construção e o desenvolvimento do poder regional na América portuguesa no longo século XVIII. Escolheu-se a capitania periférica de São Paulo como objeto principal de investigação, uma região marcada por um menor desenvolvimento econômico e por pesados encargos militares. Neste estudo, o poder regional é entendido em sua dupla dimensão estatal, a construção de uma esfera de governo na capitania, e privada, a formação de uma elite colonial propriamente regional. Esta análise considerou aspectos informais (redes) e formais (instituições), bem como dimensões cognitivas expressas por distintas culturas fiscais. Foram privilegiados três eixos de investigação: os processos de negociação fiscal, as instituições de administração fazendária e a arrematação dos contratos. Adotando-se um ponto de vista complementar e intermediário das diferentes posições no debate contemporâneo sobre o governo político na América portuguesa, a preocupação principal voltou-se para os diferentes arranjos, com conflitos e negociações, entre a Coroa portuguesa e as elites mercantis do reino e dos domínios. Entre as principais conclusões observa-se que a formação do poder regional seria marcada por dificuldades e limitações na primeira metade do século XVIII, pela construção efetiva de configurações relativamente estáveis durante o reinado absolutista de d. José I e pelo surgimento de tensões na década de 1790, decorrentes de pressões vindas do centro e dos poderes locais subjacentes. / This study aims to understand the importance of colonial fiscality as an opportune place to analyze the building and the development of the regional powers in Portuguese America in the long Eighteenth century. The peripheral captaincy of São Paulo, burdened by heavy military expenses and a lower economic importance, was chosen as the core research object. In this study, the regional power is understood in its double dimension. One side relates to the government with the construction of a state sphere in the captaincy. The other side is private, the formation of a regional colonial elite. The analysis considered informal (networks) and formal aspects (institutions) as well as cognitive dimensions expressed by different fiscal cultures. Three axis of research were highlighted: the processes of fiscal negotiation, the Treasury administration institutions and the leasing of tax contracts. The thesis supported a complementary and intermediary point of view about the different arguments in the current debate on the political government in Portuguese America. The main concern was to study the different dealings between the Portuguese Crown and the kingdom and colonial elites. These arrangements involved conflicts and negotiations. In the conclusion, it is observed that the formation of regional power was marked by difficulties and restrictions in the first half of Eighteenth century, by an effective construction of relatively stable configurations in the absolutist government of d. José I and by the awakening of tensions in the decade of 1790 provoked by central and local powers.

Este estudo busca compreender a importância da fiscalidade colonial enquanto lócus privilegiado para a análise da construção e o desenvolvimento do poder regional na América portuguesa no longo século XVIII. Escolheu-se a capitania periférica de São Paulo como objeto principal de investigação, uma região marcada por um menor desenvolvimento econômico e por pesados encargos militares. Neste estudo, o poder regional é entendido em sua dupla dimensão estatal, a construção de uma esfera de governo na capitania, e privada, a formação de uma elite colonial propriamente regional. Esta análise considerou aspectos informais (redes) e formais (instituições), bem como dimensões cognitivas expressas por distintas culturas fiscais. Foram privilegiados três eixos de investigação: os processos de negociação fiscal, as instituições de administração fazendária e a arrematação dos contratos. Adotando-se um ponto de vista complementar e intermediário das diferentes posições no debate contemporâneo sobre o governo político na América portuguesa, a preocupação principal voltou-se para os diferentes arranjos, com conflitos e negociações, entre a Coroa portuguesa e as elites mercantis do reino e dos domínios. Entre as principais conclusões observa-se que a formação do poder regional seria marcada por dificuldades e limitações na primeira metade do século XVIII, pela construção efetiva de configurações relativamente estáveis durante o reinado absolutista de d. José I e pelo surgimento de tensões na década de 1790, decorrentes de pressões vindas do centro e dos poderes locais subjacentes. / This study aims to understand the importance of colonial fiscality as an opportune place to analyze the building and the development of the regional powers in Portuguese America in the long Eighteenth century. The peripheral captaincy of São Paulo, burdened by heavy military expenses and a lower economic importance, was chosen as the core research object. In this study, the regional power is understood in its double dimension. One side relates to the government with the construction of a state sphere in the captaincy. The other side is private, the formation of a regional colonial elite. The analysis considered informal (networks) and formal aspects (institutions) as well as cognitive dimensions expressed by different fiscal cultures. Three axis of research were highlighted: the processes of fiscal negotiation, the Treasury administration institutions and the leasing of tax contracts. The thesis supported a complementary and intermediary point of view about the different arguments in the current debate on the political government in Portuguese America. The main concern was to study the different dealings between the Portuguese Crown and the kingdom and colonial elites. These arrangements involved conflicts and negotiations. In the conclusion, it is observed that the formation of regional power was marked by difficulties and restrictions in the first half of Eighteenth century, by an effective construction of relatively stable configurations in the absolutist government of d. José I and by the awakening of tensions in the decade of 1790 provoked by central and local powers.