The benchmark for VAT and VAT expenditures in Ukraine: methodological and pragmatic aspects

Abstract

Despite the preparation by the State Tax Service of Ukraine of Reports on tax reliefs that are a loss of budget revenues, which indicate certain steps towards the introduction of the concept of tax expenditures in the budget process, the question of their quality remains open due to the uncertainty of the principles of distribution of tax reliefs into those that are losses of budget revenues and other tax reliefs, and due to the algorithm for calculating budget losses from the provision of tax reliefs. In view of the above, the purpose of the article is to determine methodological approaches to the formation of Directories and, accordingly, Reports of the State Tax Service of Ukraine on tax reliefs (on the example of VAT reliefs), that are losses of budget revenues, and on other tax reliefs and justification of the guidelines for improving the quality of such reports. Based on the analysis of concepts of benchmark tax system (tax) and tax expenditure and approaches to determining their main elements, the author formulates requirements for the structure of Directories of tax reliefs and Reports on tax reliefs, in particular, it is established that if the Directory of tax reliefs, which are losses of budget revenues should include only tax expenditures, then in the structure of the Directory of other tax incentives two components can be distinguished – "structural incentives", which are elements of the benchmark tax system, and special incentives that do not lead to the loss of budgetary revenues. In order to facilitate the identification and analysis, the main components of "structural VAT reliefs" in Ukraine, as well as types (groups) of reliefs that do not cause budget losses are identified, cases of unjustified classification of tax reliefs in the State Tax Service Directories are considered and proposals to change their classification are substantiated. Based on the calculations, it was identified which groups of reliefs predominate in the system of other reliefs, as well as in the reliefs that are losses of budget revenues. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that the amount of "structural reliefs" of VAT in Ukraine is 4.5 times higher than the amount of tax expenditures, which, if necessary, can be considered as a reserve for increasing tax revenues to the state budget of Ukraine. The shortcomings of the systematic accounting of VAT reliefs in the Directories of tax reliefs have been identified and proposals aimed at improving the correctness and completeness of their accounting have been developed.