Extrafiscalidad y capacidad contributiva: Dilemas constitucionales de la chatarrización vehicular y la sostenibilidad del ambiente en Colombia

Abstract

To reduce the environmental impact generated by VCFs (old motor vehicles), Colombia has To analyze the non-fiscal purposes and contributory capacity—specifically the constitutional dilemmas surrounding vehicle scrapping and environmental sustainability in Colombia—one must understand that employing such tax tools raises questions regarding the constitutional principles governing the tax system, such as fairness, gradualism, and the capacity to contribute; this gives rise to a legal debate that influences the adoption of fiscal measures. Typically, older vehicles or those lacking regular maintenance are the primary polluters, and their owners often belong to sectors with limited economic and financial means to modernize their productive assets (Cutiva Medina et al., 2022). Consequently, the principles of equity, contributory capacity, and the prohibition against confiscatory taxation serve as substantive constitutional limits and essential corrective safeguards. A levy that fails to consider the precarious economic situation of owners relying on these vehicles for their livelihood would infringe upon the "vital minimum" and vertical equity, thereby rendering the measure unconstitutional (Gutiérrez, et al., 2024). Thus, the core legal issue lies in determining whether the current tax regarding the scrapping of fossil-fuel vehicles (FFVs) in Colombia—intended as an efficient environmental protection tool—is appropriate without violating principles of tax equity, particularly given the context of socioeconomic inequalities (ANC, 1991).