Journal of Tax Reform

Generally, standard theoretical approaches to reforming national economy are quite usable for goals of managing changes of taxation systems and their components. In particular, of most problematic issue for tax administration is all-round provision of implementing principles of horizontal justice, as well as introducing the approaches which allow the execution of commitments on making payments by taxpayers to be more profitable than evasion. In many developing countries, due to political reasons the government’s inability to implement their declared programs is frequently the main obstacle to improving the socio-economic progress. Implementation of many reform initiatives is not always successful due to absence of clear strategies in governmental policy of structural transformations. There are wide known models of applying new approaches in systems of public finance management (PFM), particularly, in regard of formation and dynamics of revenues, expenses, debts. The standard analysis of tax systems ignores, as a rule, the efficiency of tax administration connected with transaction costs and shadow economy influence: the issue is about the expenses, on one hand, for payers of obligatory payments and levies, and on the other hand, for taxation authorities, as well as about the other taxation components, non-subject to quantitative assessment, including motivation of breaching legislation. Of great significance is tax behavior, prevention of opportunism, regulation of not only tax rates and taxation basis but also of ways of public information accessibility, application of systemic toolkits of tax collection. While developing detailed plans of reforming, it is necessary to strain after maximum efficiency of continuous cycles of financial resource movements in terms of revenues and expenditures, as well as to consider challenges for interruption of the budget processes. At that, one of the main issue is, obviously, selection of targets and priorities. There are known cases, when the donor community and international organizations insist on “the best practices” introduction, especially if the reforming is carried out with their financial support. In justice to numerous positive examples, it should be borne in mind that each taxation system of every country is characterized by their specific traits, so the efficiency of its reforming will at large depend on considering local features. On the whole, the task of managing changes in the public finance systems is getting more complicated in the context of external and internal factors of uncertainty. Thus, in any circumstances it is vital to ensure continuity of the budget process, as well as execution by the state of its constitutional obligations. The regulatory potential of economy should be focused on implementing sustainable economic development goals. Accordingly, in the taxation system framework, as a strategic tool for governmental regulation, there must function efficient mechanisms of taxes and levies, as well as benefits and preferences in coordination with expenditure items, transfers and subsidies.

Public finance management (PFM); tax administration; reforming; change agents; fiscal burden; management mechanisms; structure of organization; tax behaviour; economic crises; function. Taxpayers; institutions

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