Abstract: The subject of the study is the fiscal and regulatory possibilities of corporate income tax, its structural elements and their impact on the economic activity of business entities. The purpose of the study is to identify possible ways to expand the use of the fiscal and regulatory potential of corporate income tax as an important tool for stimulating economic activity. The paper provides an assessment of the level of corporate income tax revenues to the budget system of the Russian Federation, analyzes the factors constraining the realization of its fiscal potential. Special attention is paid to the analysis of corporate income tax revenues based on the materials of one of the subjects of the Russian Federation with a low level of production and investment potential – the Republic of Dagestan. The conclusion is argued that despite the excess of the growth rate of income tax to the budget over the overall growth of tax revenues, the potential for increasing budget revenues due to an increase in the tax burden has been exhausted. Considerable attention is paid to the instruments for stimulating investment activity provided for by the current tax legislation on corporate income tax. The need to achieve the set research goal led to the expediency of using a set of different methods and techniques: the transition from the general to the particular, logical inference, observation, generalization, systematization, comparison, factor analysis, synthesis, a systematic approach. The research is based on official analytical data from the Federal Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, the Federal Tax Service of Russia, as well as the Office of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Republic of Dagestan. The scientific novelty of the study is to develop a set of recommendations aimed at realizing the fiscal and regulatory potential of income tax in the context of stimulating investment activity of organizations and reducing tax risks. The conclusion is substantiated that it is necessary to achieve an increase in corporate income tax revenues not by increasing the fiscal burden, but by fully realizing its regulatory potential as a tool to stimulate economic activity. Recommendations are formulated aimed at improving the investment tax deduction for corporate income tax as a tool to stimulate the acceleration of the renewal of worn-out fixed assets. It is noted that strategically important internal reserves for increasing income tax revenues can be both the growth of the tax base due to the intensification of economic activity of the subjects of the Russian Federation, and comprehensive solutions aimed at reducing tax risks.