Deductions for personal income tax as a solution to the social problems of the country

Abstract

This article examines the problems of application of tax deductions for personal income tax in the Russian Federation from the perspective of solution of number of socioeconomic problems. Leaning on the analysis of statistical data and foreign experience, the author describes the possible ways to improve tax benefits in this direction. For example, tax deductions may consider the ability to work, level of income, household composition, nature of expenditure incurred, etc. The relevance of the selected topic is substantiated by high poverty index and the establishment of fair taxation. The acquired results are as follows: 1) The author identifies the flaws regarding the deductions for personal income through the prism of solution of socioeconomic tasks in legislation of the Russian Federation. The detected flaws include: regressivity of a number of tax mechanisms; insignificant savings for taxpayers with the minimum living wage. All aspects are illustrated on the practical examples. 2) The analysis is conducted on foreign jurisdictions for determination of the effective tax benefits to be possibly implemented in the Russian Federation. 3) Recommendations are made on the amendments to legislation of the Russian Federation, with consideration of the adapted foreign experience, aimed at increasing the role of tax policy in solution of the problems of poverty and demographic crisis. The author provides the variant for implementation of non-taxable minimum and the system of family coefficients; substantiates their effectiveness for solution of the aforementioned tasks; analyzes their combination and amount of benefits ultimately received by the taxpayers with different level of income. 4) The author outlines the potential problems that may arise due to implementation of the listed measures; namely offer the ways to cover the revenue shortfall in regional budgets with the increase of tax benefits, including by changing tax rates and tax deductions for the taxpayers with high income.