Kalinin A.M. Alterantive Forms of Arranging Income Tax Payment: Costs and Effects

Abstract: Over the past years the main emphasis of discussions related to the income tax in the Russian Federation has been made on the possibility to transfer from the proportional to the progressive taxation scale. Issues of tax operations and tax payment procedure, as a rule, recede into the background in the discussions on the income tax. The subject of the present research is the possible mechanisms of arranging the income tax including mechanisms applicable in case of possible transfer from the proportional to the progressive taxation scale. The authors analyze the costs of paying taxes beared by a taxpayer, tax agent or tax authority. The author also touches upon the question regarding awareness of a taxpayer about the tax to be paid. The research methodology is based on the description and allocation of transaction costs (tax payment related costs) and modeling consequences in case of three alternative modifications of the tax payment system: fully assigning the obligation to calculate and pay taxes on taxpayers (physical entities) with the opportunity of the latter to authorize tax agents to perform these or those actions, or assinging the obligation to calculate taxes on a tax authority with a mandatory notice of a taxpayer regarding a tax that has been paid. The author also notes that there has been a shift from the concept of 'income tax' to the concept of 'payroll tax' for taxpayers who are wage workers and describes advantages and drawbacks of the current tax payment system and alternatives thereto. The results of the research can be used in the law-making process when preparing draft laws aimed at making amendments to Chapter 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. 

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