TRANSPARENCY OF FISCAL RELATIONS AS A PREREQUISITE IN VAT ADMINISTRATION AND REFUND

Abstract

The research article emphasizes the peculiarities of the Value Added Tax (hereafter – VAT) mechanism functioning, which provides not only one-direction movement of funds to the budget, but also the reverse movement. Due to such a variety of fiscal relations, there is a doubling of interests for the state and value added tax payers. It is determined that in order to balance the interests of subjects of fiscal relations and ensure transparency in their relations, transparency in the processes of VAT administration and refund becomes particularly relevant. It is proved that the concept of tax transparency in relations between taxpayers and state financial bodies is considered by a significant part of the authors in the area of digital transformation aimed at introducing effective administration of tax revenues to maximize the filling of budget revenues with optimal administrative costs for administration processes. Reasons are given for the lack of a unified approach to the procedure for analysing the transparency of value added tax data generated on the basis of tax reporting submitted by business entities through the Single Window for Electronic Reporting automated system. The amounts of budgetary refund of value added tax paid by VAT payers when importing goods into Ukraine are calculated. A correlation analysis was carried out and, on the basis of which the impact of paid «import VAT» on imported goods to Ukraine on the growth of budgetary refund in 2013–2022 was determined. It is substantiated that the amount of budgetary refund by 87% depends on the VAT paid during the customs clearance of imported goods to Ukraine, while other factors account for only 13%. Argumentative issues were emphasized when grouping the analytical data on the performance of the State Budget of Ukraine on «internal VAT» less the entire amount of budget refund. It is proposed that the state financial bodies (the Ministry of Finance, the State Treasury, the State Tax Service of Ukraine) publish the amounts of budgetary refund by its types (export, import, domestic operations, combined refund), which will contribute to tax transparency and the quality of reports on the performance of the State Budget of Ukraine. It is substantiated that the names of VAT as a «tax on goods imported into the customs territory of Ukraine» and a «tax on goods (works, services) produced in Ukraine» are not debatable. It is proposed to change their names to a «value added tax on imported goods produced and sold in Ukraine». The conclusions are drawn on the need for transparency aimed at providing access to information in the processes of VAT administration and refund in order to maximize the revenues of the State Budget of Ukraine while observing fair taxation and budget refund for the categories of taxpayers established by law.