Abstract
The study aims to identify the milestone events in the development of the tax administration in post-Soviet Russia and to offer recommendations for its further improvement. We tested the hypothesis about the relationship between the development of the tax system and tax administration, which, once established, can play a role in the improvement of the tax administration’s efficiency. The study relies on quantitative (regression and correlation analysis, factor analysis, principal component analysis) and qualitative methods (classification, thesaurus analysis, SWOT-analysis, critical points method). We also analyzed the legal acts describing the goals (target indicators) for the development of the tax system and tax administration and propose a set of integral indices characterizing these processes. The key events (factors) for the period starting from the 1990s to the present were identified and ranked in order of importance. Their impact was investigated with the help of SWOT-analysis and factor analysis methods. We found that in the given period, there was an increase in the correspondence between the goals of the tax administration and the goals of the tax system. This means that the tax administration’s management and staff have become more motivated to upscale their priorities and to orient their activities towards public good. The analysis of indices for the given periods has shown improved performance of the tax system and tax administration. The index of tax administration development is based on four indicators. Between the 1990s and 2010s, the index grew by 13% mainly because of the expanded scope of functions of the tax administration, staff downsizing and optimization of the remuneration system. We found that there is a significant statistical relationship between the indices of development of the tax system and tax administration.
Highlights
In combination with sluggish economic development, the financial crisis and the debt crisis that it triggered have contributed to the fact that tax evasion, tax fraud and tax avoidance are recognised as a serious problem
In some cases tax avoidance and evasion supposedly goes back to antiquity, but certainly not to the extent that we find it today
Tax fraud and tax avoidance have in the meantime reached an extent that is no longer tolerable
Summary
In combination with sluggish economic development, the financial crisis and the debt crisis that it triggered have contributed to the fact that tax evasion, tax fraud and tax avoidance are recognised as a serious problem. With the aid of established criteria, the aim is to identify general practices of tax regimes that favour financial or other economic activities in particular locations and distort trade and investment or generally undermine the trust in tax systems.1 This harmful tax competition has negative effects on the individual nation states but, seen in a global context, on the one hand the competition between states to cut tax rates is problematic and on the other hand tax incentives and tax exemptions differentiated according to sector are offered as investment incentives (see EU code of conduct). All Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland initially saw their banking secrecy as being endangered and attempted to block it Afterwards these countries backed down and announced a minimum level of cooperation and came onto the so-called grey or white lists, so that since 2009 the OECD blacklist of “Uncooperative Tax Havens” has paled for lack of entries. C(2012) 8806 final, 6.12.2012: Commission Recommendation of 6.12.2012 Ehrke-Rabel, Tina / Kofler Georg: Gratwanderungen in ÖStZ 2009/19, 456 ff. 13 Die Zeit, “Holländische Geldschleuser” [Dutch Money Sluices], 20 f, 3.7.2014 14 OECD (2013): Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, 6
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