Tax legislation of “white” Siberia during the Russian Civil War

Abstract

The article examines the problem of state regulation of the tax sphere by the anti-Soviet governments of Siberia, which is poorly studied in historical and legal science. It is revealed that the Temporary Siberian and Russian governments carried out tax administration on the basis of pre-revolutionary legislation, making adjustments to it adequate to the conditions of the time. The pre-revolutionary tax apparatus was used to collect tax revenues. It was found that in the conditions of inflation, the flow of funds to the treasury was insufficient, and the legislator provided for an increase in the rates of existing taxes, the introduction of new sources of taxation and the revision of tax benefits, while the main attention was paid to the collection of indirect taxes. It is determined that in the conditions of widespread reluctance of the population to pay taxes, some positive effect was given by legislative innovations in the collection of income tax from employees, the function of collecting which was assigned to the administration of enterprises and institutions. It is revealed that the municipal authorities, whose budgets were formed according to the residual principle, were in the worst situation. It is stated that the Russian government was forced to widely use forceful methods of tax collection, involving police structures and military teams for this purpose, whose brutal actions caused discontent among the population, and which negatively affected the legitimacy of the government.