The article makes an analysis of the ruling of the Constitutional Court (Sala Plena) C-776 2003 MP: Manuel Jose Cepeda Espinosa. File: D-4429, concerning the constitutionality of Act 788 of 2002. On this occasion, the author emphasizes that the Court defines taxing powers of the legislature as such that comes from the demonstration of the power of state intervention in the economy. However, this power is not absolute as it has as limits the right to equality (Article 13 of the CP), equity, efficiency and progressiveness (Article 363 of the CP), the principle of legality (Article 338 of the CP), the principle of financial justice, and above all the relationship that should exist between the tax which is the means for the purposes of the state, which according to the Court, are enshrined in the preamble and Article 366 of the Constitution. The latter is the vital minimum, on which the article proposes the discussion of whether it is or not a principle, if it shares any of the other principles or, on the contrary, it is part of the principle of subjection to the power of constitution of as a whole.