FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION AS A TOOL OF MINIMIZATION OF TAX GAPS IN THE ECONOMY

Abstract

Current trends in the functioning of the official and shadow sectors indicate the low effectiveness of the existing tools of state regulation of the economy and its inability to ensure long-term economic growth. One of the reasons is tax evasion, which leads to the formation of tax gaps in the economy. Their formation has a negative impact on economic development, reduces the country's budget potential, limits opportunities for funding programs. The paper substantiates that along with the regulation of tax rates, increasing the efficiency of financial monitoring procedures, assessing the probability of implementing tax evasion schemes, an important tool for minimizing tax gaps is the implementation of fiscal decentralization policy. The article analyzes the current trends in the implementation of reform of fiscal decentralization in Ukraine. The dynamics, features and advantages of the formation of united territorial communities are analyzed. It is concluded that the number of formed united territorial communities in Ukraine has been gradually decreasing since 2017. The main features of fiscal decentralization include the expansion of cooperation between individual territorial associations in the field of their economic and social development, growth of their financial potential by combining financial and investment opportunities, implementation of joint measures to regulate economic processes. The role of fiscal decentralization in the implementation of tax gap management policy is substantiated. A comparative analysis of the dynamics of changes in the main indicators of local budget revenues before and after implementation of decentralization reform in Ukraine is carried out. It is concluded that the volume of tax revenues to the state budget will be gradually reduced starting in 2015. This correlates with the beginning of the implementation of the financial decentralization reform in Ukraine. The study concludes that the implementation of decentralization reform in the country as one of the most effective tools to increase the tax potential of the territory, reduce the volume of shadow financial transactions and manage tax gaps.