Abstract:   The subject of this research is the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation pertinent to methodological questions of computation of the value added tax, namely the peculiarities of taxation of prepayments towards upcoming delivery of goods (execution of work, rendering services). The author examines the provisions of the Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 11.08.2018 No. 2796-O, which formulates the legal position on the question of establishing tax period essential for the buyer to restore the tax that was previously deducted for the transferred prepayment. Research methodology relies on the systematic analysis of tax legislation and established arbitration practice. Leaning on the conducted analysis of the provisions of tax legislation and decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, it is determined that taxation depends on the economic activity of a taxpayer and is affected by multiple factors, which requires constant improvement of tax legislation. In conclusion, the author underlines the need for clarification of tax rules. The novelty of this work consist in proposal of the new algorithm for computation of the value added tax on prepayments, which would allow reducing efforts in maintaining tax records among taxpayers, as well as alleviate the risks for additional charge of tax and fines by fiscal authorities.  

Keywords: vat tax deductions, prepaid expense, prepayment, source of law, tax law, VAT recovery, constitutional Court, VAT, vat tax period, office check

Abstract: The relevance of this research is defined by the growing share of unreported employment and the need for elaboration of tax mechanisms, which would promote legalization of income that is currently not being taxed. The subject of this research is the taxation experiment on self-employed citizens. The goal lies characterization of the key vectors of taxation experiment on self-employed citizens, as well as development of proposals for assessing its efficiency. The author systematizes the norms the Taxation Code of the Russian Federation, federal and regional tax legislation, taxation statistics data, as well as outlines the changes to the experiment due to COVID -19 pandemic. The article provides an overview of the theoretical views of Russian scholars on the advantages and disadvantages of self-employment tax. it is proven that the current stage of the experiment can be considered successful based on substantial increase in the number of taxpayers and the volume of tax revenue. The scientific novelty consists in the development of approaches towards assessing the efficiency of taxation of self-employed citizens. The author proposes indicators that can be used for assessing efficiency of the experiment until 2028:  volume of tax revenue, number of taxpayers, number of tax disputes, tax arrears, amount of accrued dues, changes in tax revenue for other types of taxes that would replace self-employment tax.

Keywords: appraisal, efficiency, professional income tax, income, self-employment, tax experiment, law, collection of taxes, special tax regime, taxpayer

Abstract: This article examines the available approaches towards tax incentivization of the activity of subjects in the industrial and innovative clusters. Analysis is conducted on the tax benefits that could be received by the residents of preferential regimes, such as special economic zones, free economic zones, territories of advanced socioeconomic development within the framework of membership in the Skolkovo Innovation Center, as well as regime for the participants of innovative scientific and technological centers. The peculiarity this research is that tax incentives are examined from the perspective of their relevance on each stage of the lifecycle of an industrial product and innovation. The author's special contribution lies in the selected approach towards assessment of the effect of preferential tax regimes from the standpoint of the development of industrial and innovative clusters. The main conclusions are as follows: 1. Currently existing territorial regimes of taxation are aimed primarily at attraction of new investments to the Russian regions and include a range of tax support measures effective for the limited period on the first stage of lifecycle of the product or innovation; 2. From the perceptive of stimulation of participation in the industrial clusters, the available preferential regimes contain attractive and essential benefits for manufacturing industrial products, however, traditional regimes, such as special economic zones and territories of advanced socioeconomic development, no longer meet the needs of innovative companies. For stimulation of participation in the innovative clusters, tax regime for the Skolkovo Innovation Center currently seems most attractive. 3. Due to the fact that the existing regimes of special economic zones, free economic zones, territories of advanced socioeconomic development are aimed at the attraction of investment and focused on the first years of implementation of the project. For incentivization of the qualitative development of industrial and innovative clusters it is reasonable to assess the possibility of more even distribution of tax benefits or introduce other long-term methods of support.

Keywords: cluster development, innovation, industrial product, life cycle stages, innovation cluster, industrial cluster, special zones, tax benefit, tax incentives, residents of special zones

Abstract: The subject of this article is the analysis of aggregated tax indicators of the activity of controlled foreign corporations: the amount of tax payable; the number of controlled foreign corporations; the number of taxpayers who control them. The author analyzes tax indicators of the activity of controlled foreign corporations owned by tax residents of the Russian Federation on corporate income tax and personal income tax; as well as examines potential proceeds from tax imposed on personal fixed income, which will be applicable for 2020. Research methodology is based on the key provisions of international taxation; tax analysis is conducted according to the open data from the reports of the Federal Tax Service for the period from 2015 to 2019 in the federal and regional context with application of analytical, comparative and statistical methods. The scientific novelty consists in interpretation of results acquired from the analysis of tax indicators of the activity of controlled foreign corporations, which allowed spotting trends in their dynamics for determination of feasible variants of tax regulation of such companies. The conclusion is made that the number of taxpayers who control such corporations has grown, but the taxes assessed on the profit of CFC has decreased. The spotted trends in the dynamics of tax indicators of the activity of CFC owned by tax residents of the Russian Federation demonstrate the promising trend of their tax regulation is not as a punitive fiscal function, but rather stimulating, which implies introduction into the Russian tax field of more corporations owned by tax residents of the Russian Federation that are located in the offshore and transit jurisdictions.

Keywords: tax resident, transit jurisdictions, tax, tax on fixed income, personal income tax, corporate income tax, CFC, tax analysis, controlled foreign company, offshore

Abstract: The subject of this research is the taxation of permanent representations of foreign companies, while the object is the permanent representations of foreign companies. The author examines such aspects of the topic as the impact of international agreements on the avoidance of double taxation upon the conduct of activity by the permanent representations in the territory of the Russian Federation, calculation of profits of permanent representations, and potential conflict situations due to the differences in the Russian tax legislation and the concluded tax agreements. The article explores the methods of transferring expenses confirmed by the accounting source documents, from permanent representations to the foreign parent companies in for the purpose of reduction of tax basis as well as presents the relevant arbitrage practice on the topic. The scientific novelty is substantiated by the use of permanent representations by both Russian and foreign companies, relevant problematic of their taxation in the Russian tax jurisdiction, which is the result that tax agreements contain only general norms and principles of calculating the tax basis for permanent representations. As a conclusion, the author makes proposals on specification of tax agreements with regards to toughening the requirements to calculation profits of the permanent representations and its redistribution, proof of expenses that could be unlawfully used or transferred to the foreign parent company to reduce the tax basis of the permanent representations.

Keywords: Parent foreign organization, Profit tax, Double tax treaty, OECD, Tax Code, Reduction of the tax base, Permanent establishment, The principle of attraction, The calculation of the tax base, Transfer of expenses

Abstract: The article turns particular attention to the analysis of opportunities for improving digital tax services and application of international experience of tax authorities in the Russian practice. The relevance of this research is defined by wide occurrence of digitalization processes in tax administration at the present stage. Digital processes within the framework of tax administration imply continuous improvement for the purpose of ensuring customer-oriented approach and voluntary compliance of taxpayers with tax legislation. In global practice, the key vectors of improvement of digital tax services is the development of their design, quality monitoring, as well as the expansion of digital tax environment by using the behavioral economics tools. The novelty of this work consists in adaptation of international experience to the Russian practice of tax authorities. The development of digital tax environment in Russia requires borrowing foreign experience of involving taxpayers into development of digital services at the earliest stage, i.e. advancement of ideas. Its implementation requires creating a platform for accumulation of the proposals from taxpayers, which can be placed on the official portal of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. The behavioral economic tools for expanding digital tax environment in Russia can be in form of automatic subscriptions to newsletters from the tax authorities. The use of virtual assistants for taxpayers’ support in digital environment is possible; however, such services should be used cautiously, due to the fact that taxpayers are not protected from fines in case of misinformation.

Keywords: virtual assistants, behavioral economics, nudge, taxation, taxpayers, quality of tax administration, digital tax services, tax administration, digital service design, development of digital services

Abstract: The subject of this research is the tax risks for the state, namely systematization of theoretical approaches towards their essence and consideration of practical examples of their implementation.  Within the framework of theoretical cognition, the author systematized the approaches towards determination of tax risks for the state and their causes. The empirical research is carried out via analyzing the Russian tax policy with regards to identification of the key tax risks for the state. The scientific novelty lies in determination of tax risks for the state in the context of the modern concept of risk theory, systematization of approaches towards studying tax risks for the state, and substantiation of their classification. The analysis of the Russian tax policy reveals that the key tax risks for the state imply shortage in tax revenue into the budgetary system, ambiguity of the text of tax legislation, ineffectiveness of tax incentives, and decrease in competitiveness of the federal/regional tax system. Therefore, tax policy of the Russian Federation should be oriented towards minimization of these tax risks.

Keywords: tax legislation, budget, tax competition, tax policy, state, tax risk, risk, tax, tax benefits, probability

Abstract: The subject of this research the normative legal acts that regulate social relations emerging as a result of violation of financial legislation of the Russian Federation and determine unlawfulness of the act and penalties for its commission, grounds and mechanism of legal liability, as well as the established law enforcement practice and the existing legal doctrine. This theoretical-legal research is dedicated to examination of the essence and content of the category of tax liability. The study of tax liability as an apparent phenomenon of the Russian socio-legal reality is conducted via dissection of the indicated conceptual category with consideration of the existing contradictory doctrinal views on this phenomenon, as well as the accumulated socio-legal experience. The relevance of this research is substantiate by the range of opinions underlying the doctrinal foundation of legal liability as a scientific category of financial law and general theory of law. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the conclusion made in the course research on the autonomy of tax liability within the system of legal liability of in the Russian law allowed correlating the constitutive characteristics of legal liability with the characteristics of its particular case – tax liability. The conducted analysis and scientific reflection on the reviewed concepts became a derivative of the conclusion on the autonomy of tax liability within the system of legal liability in the Russian law.

Keywords: financial law, public law, fiscal interest, tax violations, tax responsibility, financial and legal responsibility, legal responsibility, tax law, financial violations, administrative law

Abstract: The problem of qualification of property became urgent in 2019, when corporate property tax was levied on movable property. Tax authorities began to reclassify movable property into immovable property, using the terms and constructions of civil legislation. This article examines such legal constructs as a single real estate complex, and its impact upon taxation of corporate property. Special attention given to the following questions: 1. What objects can be incorporated into a single real estate complex? 2. Whether the range of objects united by a single technological network can be recognized as a single real estate complex, if the right to ownership is not registered as for a single immovable object in the uniform state register? Based on the analysis of the actual arbitration cases, it is concluded that the concept of a single real estate complex was completely revised by the tax authorities, and then by the courts, violating the goals pursued by the legislator, who tried to encourage corporations to renovate fixed assets, intentionally excluding movable property as the object of taxation in the context of corporate property tax. The author concludes that the interpretation of the terms of civil legislation proposed by tax authorities and established in case law led to unfeasibility of the goals set for the legislator, as well as to violation of the fundamental tax principles.

Keywords: property tax, movable property, real estate, requalification of property, tax, object of taxation, single real estate complex, tax administration, unified real property unit, taxation

Abstract: This article explores the peculiarities of the system of mandatory payments and taxation in the USSR in the early 1970s. The author traces the amendments made to sectoral legislation (land, water, administrative, civil, etc.) and the corresponding improvement of the mechanism of collection of charges in this historical period. Special attention is given to the role of mandatory payments to be paid by rural population, changes in the procedure for collecting tax on sales, as well as clarification of the legal status and competence of inspection authorities. It is noted that the basic taxes paid by rural population in the early 1970s were the agricultural tax, income tax (from citizens who have income from agriculture in cities, workers, summer villages, and rural settlements) and ground rent. Analysis is conducted on the corresponding legislation and practice of its implementation. The conclusion is made that despite a range of decisions made with regards to providing incentives for agricultural tax, the cancellation of charges for the owners of livestock along with the state tax on horses of individual farms, reduced income tax rates and tax on single persons and citizens who have small families, the general the task for significant reduction of tax burden on the population has not been resolved. This was substantiated by fact that the mechanism of income taxation has undergone isolated changes, but its essential construct has not been revised. In the early 1970s, no reforms within the system of mandatory payments and taxation have been conducted in the Soviet Union.

Keywords: self-taxation of the rural population, tax burden, mandatory payments, Soviet economy, water use, land use, budget, taxes, agricultural industry, turnover tax