Zotikov N.

Role of indirect taxation in forming budget revenues

Keywords: indirect taxation, direct taxes, added value, balanced budgets, budget legislation, budget deficit

The author analyzes the structure of Russian tax system and gives actual data of the federal budget revenues for several years. The Russian tax law provides for indirect taxation both on the territory of the Russian Federation and within export-import operations at the country's customs territory. Based on the factual data, the author proves the prevailing role of indirect taxation in Russian tax-budgetary mechanism. Indirect taxes have become one of the main sources of budget revenues. Indirect taxes do not contribute to production growth. High indirect taxes in the Russian tax system serve as deterrent to the country's economic growth and do not contribute to higher efficiency of labour and capital. Indirect taxation is an urgent issue due to the fact that it has prevailed in the Russian tax system since its inception. At times, indirect taxes made up over 60% of the overall amount of tax revenues. Predominance of indirect taxation is characteristic of weak economies. By use of comparative approach, indexed method etc., the author gained the results that allow drawing the following conclusions. When adopting the government's tax policy a primary goal should be establishing an optimum relationship between direct and indirect taxes. The analysis of advantages and disadvantages of direct and indirect taxation leads to a legitimate conclusion that a state's budgetary fiscal system should be based on a reasonable combination of direct and indirect taxes. For present-day Russian economy, a primary goal is changing the relationship between direct and indirect taxation in favor of direct taxes, which would diminish the fiscal function of taxes and enhance their regulating function, at which point the fiscal system would start promoting the economic growth.

About authors

Zotikov Nikolay Z.

Candidate of Economics Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Finance, Credit and Economic Security, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (zotikovcontrol@yandex.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5631-9123)

Article link

Zotikov N. Role of indirect taxation in forming budget revenues [Electronic resource] // Oeconomia et Jus. – 2015. – №1. P. 9-14. – URL: https://oecomia-et-jus.ru/en/single/2015/1/2/.