Post Mortem Transferability of Personal Accounts on Social Media and Sharing Platforms: From Civil Legal Protection to Tax Legal Protection

Abstract

This article has as its research problem the following question: do accounts on social networks and sharing platforms compose and fulfill the tax hypothesis of the Tax on Transmission of Property and Donation? Two hypotheses are proposed: (H1) The legal nature of the object under analysis is configured as a component of the patrimonial sphere and, therefore, as a legal good subject to transmission causa mortis. On the other hand, (H2) the object of study is classified as an extra patrimonial and personal, and therefore cannot be transmitted post-mortem. The aim is to analyze the legal nature of the relationship between users and social networks from the standpoint and sufficiency of the classical theory of property in the current Civil Code to answering the proposed problem and the hypotheses raised. As a result, it is verified that it is a contractual legal relationship whose protected asset is classified as a Credit Right and Very Personal Right to Enjoyment and, therefore, non-transferable. Based on this result, the principal tax incidence rule of the Causa Mortis Transmission and Donation Tax on the factual support in question is analyzed. The tax rule cannot be applied in this case due to normative insufficiency in the face of the peculiarities of factual support. Despite this result, a hypothesis is presented where the tax hypothesis is applied, and the challenges to the incidence matrix rule of the tax under analysis are demonstrated. We conclude for H2 and, consequently, for the non-levy of ITCMD. This article uses the integrated review method in addition to the bibliographical research technique to reach the results and meet the proposed objectives.