ANALYSIS OF TAX POLICY IMPACT ON THE SHADOW ECONOMY OF RUSSIA AND THE USA

Abstract

The article examines the impact of the shadow sector on the country's economy. It is determined that the generating factors of shadow activity are imperfect tax legislation and established political and economic institutions. The negative impact of shadow economy is expressed in a low quality of economic growth, which causes the need to search for tools to influence shadow activities. The tax policy is examined as one of such tools. Tax policy creates different incentives for economic entities. By so doing, the tax policy should contribute to the accumulation of sufficient funds in the budget, to the growth of business activity in the country. However, for Russia, the relationship between the tax burden and the shadow economy turned out to be insignificant; for the United States, an inverse linear relationship between the indicators was revealed. In consequence of this, it is concluded that only tax measures are insufficient to combat the shadow economy in Russia. Moreover, a general pattern for the two countries was noted, it consists in lowering the tax burden and increasing the shadow activity during periods of economic downturn. The analysis of the tax policies used in the two countries shows that Russia has high taxes and labor contributions compared to the United States. More favorable conditions in Russia compared to the United States in the form of time spent for preparing and paying taxes and the number of tax payments do not affect the reduction of the shadow economy scale. The time required to start a business in Russia exceeds that of the United States. To reduce the scale of shadow activity, it is necessary to revise the mechanism of insurance premiums payment, improve the institutional conditions for business functioning.