Tax amnesty: legal analysis of foreign experience

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Tax amnesty: legal analysis of foreign experience

Journal Title: Альманах права - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue 9

Abstract

The article outlines the prospects for the introduction of a tax amnesty in Ukraine, as well as suggests ways to improve the concept of the mechanism for its implementation, based on the study of the experience of tax amnesties at the present stage in foreign countries, for example, of the Republic of Indonesia. As a result of the study of Ukrainian legislation, it has been confirmed that the «amnesty» institution has an interdisciplinary nature, the peculiarities of which are manifested in one or another field (sub-branch) of law. Moreover, the author concludes that there is no legislative definition of the definition of «tax amnesty», as well as ambiguous understanding of this phenomenon by representatives of the scientific community. Analysis of various scientific positions and world experience in tax amnesties contributed to the identification of its controversial nature. It is emphasized that there are diametric approaches: for some countries, the tax amnesty has proven to be a sufficiently successful measure; for some – unacceptable. The experience of the Republic of Indonesia has been chosen new for the Ukrainian financial and legal science. The main goal of the Indonesian tax amnesty was to encourage the repatriation of assets by Indonesian taxpayers who were kept outside of Indonesia, and then their further investment in the Indonesian economy. In addition, the tax amnesty has become a real source of state budget revenues. However, the political decision to grant a tax amnesty was found to be controversial in Indonesia, because politics, first, weakened the moral spirit of those taxpayers who were law-abiding and paid taxes; secondly, the tax amnesty program has shown the ability to influence the compliance of Indonesian citizens with tax legislation in the long run as they will not see the need to pay taxes at all and will wait for the next program of tax amnesty; thirdly, the tax amnesty program has become a potential means for taxpayers to launder money. The main disadvantage of implementing the program of tax amnesty in Indonesia can be recognized: the absence of a process of verification or tracking of the source of funding used by the taxpayer in the program of tax amnesty. It is established that the degree of success of a tax amnesty largely depends on its background conditions and the given format. In particular, the position is held on the need to prevent the dependence of citizens from the programs of tax amnesty and encourage tax compliance, in particular by introducing additional liability measures for those who have not used this program.

Authors and Affiliations

Iryna Pyvovar

Keywords

EP ID EP545753
DOI -
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