Prevention offences in the tax area with the help of remedies and principles of the administrative law

IRYNA KOMARNYTSKA^a*,NATALIYA ZABOLOTNA^a, MYKHAILO PARASIUK^a

Prevention offences in the tax area with the help of remedies and principles of the administrative law**

Summary: 1. Introduction, 2. Materials and methods, 3. Results and discussion, 4. Conclusions.

DOI: 10.26350/18277942_000118

1. Introduction

Administrative offence in the tax area is one of the most important delict phenomenon of financial nature. The state directs forceful efforts in order to prevent such offences, including measures of the administrative law. As a matter of fact, it has been proved since ancient times that this kind offences poses a serious threat to security of the state as well as to well-being of its citizens[1]. Offences in the tax area include the following: offences in respect of recovery and management of payment of taxes and duties; violations of the procedure of implementation of the taxpayers' rights in respect of payment of taxes and duties; violations of rights, obligations, and competence of the controlling authorities and the subjects that are responsible for management of taxes and duties; other violations of the tax legislation. Specific definitions of the tax offences and essence of these offences are presented in the Tax Code of Ukraine[2]. In accordance with these definitions, it is proposed to understand that tax offences are the wrongful acts, which are committed by taxpayers, withholding agents, by their designated officials, as well as by the designated officials of the controlling authorities, provided that such wrongful acts precondition and stipulate non-observance or improper observance of requirements of the tax legislation, assurance of supervision over which is laid upon the controlling authorities. In these circumstances, it is provided that there exists a possibility of application of the financial, administrative, and criminal responsibility for committing tax offences[3]. Objects of the tax offences are determined as follows: the social relations, which establish the order of implementation of the taxation liability in the broad sense of these words, at which the wrongful act is directed, and which are inflicted to injuries due to committing such offences. In accordance with the Comments to the Tax Code, objects of the tax offence are determined as follows: financial interests of the state in respect of formation of the centralised monetary funds at the expense of taxes and duties[4]. Code of Ukraine on administrative offenses[5]also contains substantial list offences in the tax area along with the definitions of degrees of responsibility for committing such offences:

- offences under the jurisdiction of the tax accounting bodies, offences in the course of submission of the audit opinions (Article 163-1);

- non-submission or delayed submission of the payment orders on transfer of the taxes and duties, which are due and payable (the mandatory payments) (Article 163-2);

- non-observance of the legal requirements and demands, which were declared by the designated officials of the tax authorities (Article 163-3);

- violation of the order on withholding and transfer of the personal income tax, as well as the order on submission of information on the paid incomes (Article 163-4);

- violation of the order of recovery and payment of the tourist fee (Article 163-17);

- violation of the order of termination of the entrepreneurial activities by a legal entity or by a natural person-entrepreneur (Article 166-6).

In addition, prevention of the financial misconductsis also implemented with the help of remedies and principles of the administrative law. These misconducts are also included to the list of the tax offences and they are described in detail in the Tax Code of Ukraine[6](particularly, see Articles 117-128-1). For example, it is possible to consider that the tax offences include the following offences: offences, which are connected with the order of making recognition of / registration with the controlling authorities; provision of information on opening or closing accounts in banking institutions, opening or closing the report on the expense accounts; provision of information (by a taxpayer) in respect of the natural persons, who are taxpayers; information on the agreements in respect of lease of the real estate units; violation of the order of submission of the tax accounting instruments; violation of registration of the excise tax invoices; violation of the rules of application of the simplified system of taxation by the natural person-entrepreneur; violation of the rules of the long-term life insurance or of the contracts on insurance within the limits of the non-governmental pension provision; violation of the rules of assessment, withholding, and payment (transfer) of the relevant taxes at the source of payment. In the context of this research, it is interesting to note statements of certain scientists as follows: latency of delicts within the fiscal area is attributable to the fact that, in principle, such delicts cause damage to the interests of the state, as well as the fact that there is no possibility to identify the "immediate" injured parties[7]^{, [8]}. K.O. Prokhorov[9] determines administrative responsibility as the certain kind of general legal responsibility, as well as a component of the system of legal responsibility in the tax area provided that this responsibility occurs due to violation of the tax legislation, as well as (in the relevant aspects) of the customs legislation and the code of private commercial laws. In addition, this scientist determines (in accordance with results of this research) grounds and goals of occurrence of this responsibility:

- on the basis of and in accordance with the procedure, which is fixed in the norms of the administrative legislation, taking into account the norms of the tax legislation and the code of private commercial laws?

- on the basis of the special juridical fact – tax offence;

- with the purpose of regulation and of protection of relations in the tax area with the help of the administrative-law instruments of influence, as well as with the purpose of: elimination of the social damage; minimisation of risks for the applicable legal system; elimination of the threat to the national security of the state;

- with the purpose of implementation of the principle of inevitability of the legal responsibility for the administrative offences, which were committed in the tax area, through the procedure of bringing the violator of the relevant provisions of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses[10] to the administrative responsibility subject to the availability of all grounds and conditions for this procedure;

- with the purpose of increase of the level of the legal awareness of the general public;

- with the purpose of implementation of the special tasks, which were described by this scientist;

- with the purpose of performance of certain functions, which describe initial directions of influence upon the social relations within the tax area, as well as within the sphere of economy.

2. Materials and Methods

The methodological framework of this research has been contained analytical, legal, and statistical methods of analysis. In addition, methods of the general scientific nature and special methods have been used. Main provisions of the legislative basis were investigated at the international and national levels. The methodology, which was used, has made it possible to develop main directions of the taxation system optimisation in respect of prevention offences within this system with the help of remedies and principles of the administrative law. The methods, which were used, have made it possible to obtain credible and substantiated conclusions and results. The methodological basis of this research has been contained the following components: fundamental provisions of financial and economic sciences; dialectical method of perception; evolutionary-systemic approach to development of theories of the tax law and fiscal relationships; theory of the scientific understanding and knowledge, as well as the systemic approach to the analysis of processes in the course of their interrelationship and development. As concerns various methods of analysis, it was conventional analytical method, which was selected as one of the main methods and which has made it possible to estimate efficiency of the administrative measures in the course of general prophylaxis within the taxation system in order to develop specific directions of regulation and settlement of the object of research. Analysis of the statistical data in respect of the trends in various infringements in the tax area (as well as in respect of the dynamics of the tax area) was carried out with the help of the comparative method.

The descriptive method has made it possible to present results of this research in the logical sequence. Application of the estimation method has made it possible to make conclusions in respect of efficiency of the applicable methods of performance of the preventive work and maintenance for and on behalf of the relevant subjects. The empirical methods have been connected with the studies of the existing business practices of various bodies in respect of prevention of the tax offences, as well as in respect of maintenance of the normative documentation. In addition, the following methods have been used in the course of this research: statistical methods, methods of the economic analysis, methods of synthesis, methods of analogy, the systemic method, as well as the classification method. Method of synthesis has made it possible to solve the assigned research tasks due to application of this method to the primary sources in respect of this problem. Methods of induction and deduction, which were used in order to analyse essence and structure of legislative texts, characteristics of the lawful norms in the context of the area of this research. Due to the structural and functional analysis, it has become possible to explore distinctive features of the structural organisation of modern institutions and organisations (which implement preventive measures in the tax area) and ensure the following: supervision over observance of the tax legislation; interaction of these institutions and organisations between each other and interaction with other institutions, activity of which is connected with these problems in one or another manner. In the course of this analysis, the historical method has been used, which has made it possible to explore process of establishment of the preventive system in the tax area.

This research has been performed during four stages. The first stage was devoted to the theoretical research in order to determine essence of the offences in the tax area both at the legislative level, and within the doctrinal environment. The second stage was devoted to the analysis of the policy in respect of prevention of and fighting with administrative offences in the sphere of application of the tax legislation. In addition, the following factors have been determined: subjects of implementation of this policy, directions of their preventive activity and existing measures in the sphere of prevention of delicts in the tax area. In the course of the third stage, critical analysis of certain directions (which have been proposed by certain scientists) in order to improve estimation of efficiency of the preventive work and maintenance within tax relations have been determined. At the same time, measures for improvement of the preventive influence upon the legal tax relations have been developed. At the fourth stage, theoretical and practical conclusions have been defined more accurately, while the obtained results were systematised and generalised. Permanent changes in the tax legislation, as well as continuous changes in the sizes of sanctions (in terms of the relevant bases, as well as under the responsibility of and in the connection with the inflationary trends) necessitate further investigations in this direction. Therefore, it is necessary to apply the newest methods of such researches.

3. Results and Discussion

Directions and requirements of prevention of the offences in the tax area. Integrity of understanding the "tax offences" category by the law-making body makes it possible to recognise integrity of the measures, which are used for prevention of such delicts. In other words, the measures of the administrative nature, which are used in order to prevent administrative misconducts in the tax area, at the same time, are capable to exercise preventive influence upon the offences, which are described in detail in the Tax Code of Ukraine, as well as in the description of the criminal activities in the tax area. Authors of this paper fully agree with the opinion of Mr. S.V. Vasylenko[11]in respect of the fact that preventive and precautionary influence will always be achieved due to the assurance of a balance between the taxpayers' legal possibilities (as well as their interests) and combination of several important factors (namely: stability of the budgeting system; competence of the tax authorities and other controlling bodies; possibility of satisfaction of interests of the state and of the entire society). It is the important prerequisite of the effective functioning of the fiscal system. It is exactly the kind of balance, which determines essence of the restrictions in respect of taxpayers in order to ensure observance of the main governmental functions by the state.In the course of prevention of various offences in the tax area, it is proposed to take into account such requirements:

- the state and society inform citizens and economic entities on the essence of the legislative provisions on the required actions in respect of the legal relations in the taxation area, on the distinctive features of these legislative provisions depending on the kind of their occupations, as well as on responsibility for violation of these legislative provisions[12];

- development of integrity, business, society and the state is not compatible with indifference of the authorized officials and citizens in respect offences[13];

- prevention of the offences in respect of all citizens and economic entities must be combined with the precautionary measures and protection against the offences to the benefit of each natural person or legal entity[14].

As one of the main directions of prevention of the offences in the tax area it is possible to name the same two directions, which were determined (in principle) for the system of prevention, in other words, form of a general action and form of the individual influence upon the objects of prevention. It is possible to consider the following general prevention measures, which can be used by subjects of the governmental system of prevention of the offences:

- collection and analysis of information on the offences, which are committed in the taxation area;

- analysis of application of the tax legislation, including estimation of reasons offences and other phenomena, which are connected with offences in this area, making propositions in respect of improvement of prevention measures;

- forecasting the criminal activities and offences in the tax area;

- analysis of information on offences, creation of the relevant database on the basis of this analysis, and forecasting development of the criminal activities and occurrence of the conditions, which prevent committing the offences in the tax area;

- identification and elimination of reasons offences and the conditions, which promote committing the offences;

- taking into account the lawful and criminological aspects in the course of making draft projects of the preventive solutions;

- performance of the legal propaganda and legal education of the population and economic entities;

- study of and supervision over (within the limits of the relevant powers) the norms of the criminal, administrative, and tax responsibility, as well as norms of other kinds of responsibility in respect of activity of the subject of the governmental system of prevention offences;

- formation of the public opinion, which must be aimed at inadmissibility of committing offences in the tax area;

- development and implementation of the municipal, departmental (industrial), and object programmes of prevention of the tax offences;

- engagement of other bodies, organisations, public associations, non-governmental organisations, and citizens to the prevention offences within relevant territories in accordance with the applicable legislation[15].

Performance of special seminars and workshops (trainings) with taxpayers plays a meaningful role in the course of preventive work of the tax authorities in respect of the tax offences. Subjects offences in the tax area. The State Tax Service of Ukraine (STS) implements policy of the state in respect of prevention of and fighting with administrative offences in the sphere of application of the tax legislation, as well as of the statutory and regulatory enactments in respect of payment of the single social security tax[16]. Specific authorities and discretionary powers within this area were delegated to the following structural subdivisions of the STS: Department of management of the taxes, Department of the tax audits, transfer pricing, and international taxation; Department of monitoring of the risk-based transactions and incomes, as well as other structural subdivisions of the STS. The law-making body has given a special place to the tax militia (renamed later as the Tax Police) within the system of the subjects for fighting with the tax offences. Detailed description of the legal status is presented in the special Section XVIII² of the Tax Code of Ukraine[17]. Particularly, it is established in the Code that the tax militia has its own special task: prevention of criminal and other offences in the taxation area and in the budgetary sphere, as well as disclosure, investigation, and judicial proceedings in respect of the administrative offences; search for the wanted persons, who flee from investigation and trial for committing criminal cases and other offences in the taxation area and in the budgetary sphere[18].

Implementation of prevention of delicts in the tax area is performed by the bodies of the tax militia due to their possibilities to obtain information from the local tax offices (within rural districts, within the towns, which are not divided into districts, within urban districts, within interdistrict departments, and within joint governmental tax offices, where contracting parties are registered with) in respect of: payment of taxes and duties; copies of inspection certificates and certificates on the places of business; value added tax declarations (VAT declarations); corporate income tax returns; information in respect of the employees, who bear responsibility for assurance of payment of taxes; information in respect of the official registration; information on the financial and economic activities; on possibility of taking explanations in respect of work activities and supplies of goods and material values; copies of various documents (including transactions, tax invoices, consignment notes, cash receipt notes, certificates on transfer and acceptance of work (services), as well as other documents in respect of essence of the financial and economic transactions of the object of the tax inspection[19]. As concerns the area under investigation, particular attention should be given to the preventive activity of the National Police of Ukraine. Main subject of implementation of the preventive activity is the Department of Economic Protection of the National Police. This activity is connected with identification of the reasons and conditions, which stipulate committing offences in the sphere of economy, application of measures in respect of their elimination[20]. There exist many important functions of this Department: formation of the normative and legal basis for fighting with such offences; development of the automatised information systems, which provide help and assistance to the law-enforcement activities; development of the intelligence and tracking subdivisions; systematisation, studying, analysis, and assessing the information in respect of prevention offences within this area; preparation of the information and analytical drafts/documents; making propositions, which will promote implementation of the efficient preventive measures, supervision over elimination of the identified conditions, which incite the commission of unlawful acts and offences etc.[21].

In principle, prevention of the offences in the tax area is manifested via application of various governmental and social events, which are directed at neutralisation of the reasons and conditions of the delict activity in respect of recovery and management of payment of taxes and duties; assurance of implementation of the taxpayers' rights in respect of taxes and duties; assurance of legal personality of the controlling authorities and other subjects in the sphere of management of taxes and duties. In these circumstances, it is very important to implement a number of various measures: both measures from the part of governmental bodies and general public (in respect of formation of the legal conscience of payers of taxes and duties; dissemination of knowledge on the lawful requirements in respect of organisation of payment of taxes and duties in Ukraine), and special measures of the fiscal authorities and bodies of tax control in respect of prevention and termination of the delict behaviour in the tax area, in respect of loosening and neutralisation of the reasons and conditions of such behaviour, of certain kinds of such behaviour or certain delicts of the tax nature[22]. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the well-elaborated in the international practice and very efficient measures of prevention of the tax evasion (fiscal avoidance). Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 996 “On Ensuring Public Participation in the Formation and Implementation of Public Policy”[23] is the main normative and legal basis for engagement of general public to prevention offences in the tax area. This Resolution establishes relevant powers and authorities of the Public Council at the State Tax Service of Ukraine: performance of the public monitoring in order to determine the following facts: whether governmental authorities take into account the propositions and comments that were made by the general public; whether there exists assurance of transparency of activity of the subjects of public administration and management; whether there exists supervision over observance of the relevant requirements in respect of the corruption prevention.

The Public Council at the State Tax Service of Ukraine has approved the following arrangements for activity within the tax area[24] and other measures of work during 2020: submission of propositions to the STS of Ukraine in order to overcome problems of management of the taxes and other payments, cooperation with the public council at the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in respect of protection of taxpayers; analysis of the condition of declaration in respect of payments of taxes and duties on the basis of the data from the STS of Ukraine; in respect of the effective functioning of the System for Monitoring Criteria of the Risk Assessment (SMCRA), as well as the System of Electronic Administration of Fuel Sales (SEAFS); in respect of the state of the VAT reimbursement; in respect of fighting with the tax offences; review of relevant applications from taxpayers and representatives of the general public in respect of problems of the legal tax relations[25]. There are no doubts that all these measures exercise essential preventive influence upon the legal tax relations and act as the deterrent in respect of the delict behaviour of the designated officials of the tax authorities. In addition, there exist other powerful subjects of the preventive influence, namely, civil society organizations and associations, among which it is possible to note the Ukrainian Union of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs, Union of the Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, and other representatives of general public.

As concerns the developed democratic states, there exists the actual practice that is aimed at establishment of the special bodies, main task of which is to prevent tax delicts[26]. Particularly, it is possible to mention the following special bodies: the Internal Revenue Service (which is one of the structural subdivisions of the U.S. Department of the Treasury), as well as the Australian Centre for Collection and Processing of Information on Financial Transactions. In addition, there exist the Department of Financial Investigationsof the State Control Committee of the Republic of Belarus, as well as relevant bodies of the financial police of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Particularly, the Internal Revenue Service implements supervisory powers in respect of completeness and timeliness of tax payments, observance of the requirements in respect of submission of tax declarations, enforced collection of tax indebtedness and penalties from taxpayers[27]. It is important that there exist special information and analytical subdivisions within the organisational structures of such organisations and bodies. These structural subdivisions help to analyse and compare substantial volumes of information, which is usually obtained from financial and law-enforcement agencies[28].

Priority areas of activity, within which it is necessary to increase assessing the efficiency of the preventive work and maintenance. In order to improve the preventive influence upon the legal tax relations, it is necessary to determine priority areas of the required lawful and organisational changes. As concerns the variety of the priority areas, it is possible to note promotion of cooperation and improvement of communication between fiscal authorities and civil society organizations, entrepreneurial associations, and law-enforcement agencies; increase of diversity of forms and methods of the preventive work and maintenance, increase of application of the method of persuasion, as well as encouragement of taxpayers to the law-abiding activities; application of the information technologies in order to identify the delict behaviour in the tax area; increase of the forms and methodologies of training the designated officials, who ensure management of taxes and duties; development and introduction of the staff development programmes for such designated officials; workload reduction, as well as assistance in overcoming "the occupational burnout" in the process of performance of employment duties by these officials and so on. Many specialists have been tried to solve this problem, and they have proposed various measures in order to increase efficiency of the preventive activities, however, this problem continues to be unsolved until now. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the existing taking into account the changes in the tax area, as well as to develop new methods.

So, for example, authors of this paper fully agree with the opinion of Mr. O.A. Mahopets[29] in respect of the fact that overcoming the preconditions of occurrence of tax deviations is only possible due to the following factors: formation of quality legislation in the sphere of taxes; decrease in the tax rates; counterbalancing of tax amounts and penal sanctions in the cases of non-payment of taxes; simplification of the procedure of management of taxes; improvement of prevention of the tax offences; assurance of the taxpayers' understanding of the inevitability of punishment, as well as formation of the tax ethics. In addition, in the course of this analysis it was possible to find the well-grounded arguments in support of the opinion of certain scientists in respect of necessity to strengthen influence upon operation of the controlling authorities of the civil society Institutions; performance of public expert examination of the normative and regulatory documents; paying attention to the problem of counterbalancing positions of the controlling authorities and representatives of business; strengthening the role of the public councils, which can be used as the efficient platform for establishment of partnership relationships with general public; providing feedback with taxpayers; establishment of the independent control[30], as well as in respect of necessity of widening the consulting and information work along with strengthening the role of relevant structural subdivisions of the controlling authorities, because of this fact will help to eliminate the problems that are connected with interpretation of norms of the tax law. This fact will make it possible to transform the State Tax Service of Ukraine into the consulting and servicing institution[31].

In addition, it would make sense to discuss the opinion in respect of necessity to provide the taxpayers with the feel of the social responsibility, awareness of the importance and understanding of necessity of the voluntary payment of taxes[32]^,[33]. It is possible to ensure achievement of this goal due to: strengthening the public and servicing functions of fiscal authorities; improvement of dialogue with the entrepreneurial structures; assurance of legal opportunities of taxpayers and observance of requirements of the tax legislation by participants of legal tax elations; assurance of equal conditions for payers of taxes and duties and elimination of the factors, which stipulate formation of the privileged status for certain payers. In these circumstances, authors of this paper emphasize the need of introduction (for the conscientious taxpayers) of special procedures for making payments by instalments, of possible procedures for conclusion of an amicable agreement in order to continue their entrepreneurial activities and ensure preservation of jobs. It is also necessary to agree with the opinion that introduction of special information and an analytical system in the tax area is especially important in the current circumstances in order to prevent and terminate tax offences. Particularly, in order to identify the taxpayers, which evade payment of taxes, the automatised information and analytical system "Selection of object" was developed and implemented. It makes it possible to identify the economic entities, activity of which has characteristics of the illegal activity, which violates tax legislation. Introduction of such system makes it possible to use this system as the supportive resource in the course of identification of fictitious enterprises; the enterprises, which: violate tax discipline, do not observe requirements in respect of completeness and timeliness of tax payments and duties; perform illegal transactions with the foreign currency accounts; as well as to identify facts of shadow activities[34].

Introduction of the information and analytical systems for collection of information on the delict activities is much needed in order to prevent offences in the tax area. Further increasing the capabilities of the computer processing of information on the objects of the tax control, on risks in the tax area, on the reasons and conditions of possible offences is the key to success of the efficient prevention of various delicts of the tax nature. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the comments in respect of necessity of further improvement of the procedure of official registration of taxpayers. In these circumstances, it is necessary to introduce a uniform system of the accounting instruments, as well as to increase the list of the electronic accounting instruments[35]. Therefore, it seems appropriate to take into account relevant statements of certain scientists in respect of the fact that in order to ensure efficiency of use of such automatised system it is necessary to ensure thorough fulfilment of a number of conditions, including the condition of unification of use: sources of information, classifiers, and international standards in this area. Therefore, it would be possible to ensure fulfilment of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 403 “On Amendments and Addenda to the State Program of Ukraine's Transition to the International System of Accounting and Statistics”[36], as well as further improvement and expansion of the information support of such process due to improvement of the normative and legal basis of use and wide dissemination of the instructional and methodological documents. In these circumstances, preventive activities must be based on the well-consolidated information from the tax authorities, taxpayers, bodies of the public governance and management (at various levels), law-enforcement agencies, customs authorities, government statistics agencies, bodies of banks, bodies of credit and financial institutions, as well as bodies of the State Property Fund of Ukraine and bodies of various municipal property funds[37]^,[38].

As concerns prevention of offences in the tax area, it is necessary to pay attention to interrelationship of these offences with the phenomena of corruption behaviour of the designated officials of the controlling authorities. In accordance with the opinion of scientists, availability of the supervisory powers is the traditionally favourable factor for occurrence of corruption[39]. It is very important to ensure increase of efforts, as well as development of special measures in respect of overcoming the corruption within tax authorities. In accordance with the opinion of a number of scientists, the below-listed factors be instrumental of achievement of this goal: procedure of declaration of property, incomes, expenses, obligations of financial nature such declarations are to be submitted by the designated officials and by all members of their families); automatisation of processes of the tax control and management of payment of taxes and duties; improvement of the electronic services; decrease in the need of personal contacts (in the course of the tax activities) between payers and designated officials of the controlling authorities; improvement of the internal motivation of the designated officials in respect of the law-abiding behaviour, high level of knowledge of taxpayers in the tax area; improvement of the public control; overcoming the selectivity in application of the anti-corruption legislation[40]^,[41].

In addition, in accordance with the opinion of Mrs. M.I. Melnyk and I.V. Leshchukh[42], the following factors are also very important in this sphere: implementation of the internal anti corruption control within the tax authorities; performance of special inspections and audits in this sphere; thorough inspection and careful check-up of all officer-seekers and candidates for various positions in the tax authorities; credibility of the information, which is presented in the declaration on income; abolition of the requirement in respect of the planned figures proceeds from penalties and revenues acquired from fines in accordance with results of the tax control; application of the serious punishments in respect of the designated officials, who violate requirements of the law in the sphere of corruption. Such punishments would be accompanied by the confiscation of valuables and monetary assets. In addition, information on the revealed facts of corruption will be disseminated and included to the Unified State Register of Persons that Committed Corruption or Corruption-Related Offenses in order to prevent any possibilities for such persons to hold any governmental positions in future.The Order of the State Tax Service of Ukraine No. 52 “On Approval of the Rules of Ethical Conduct in the Bodies of the State Tax Service”[43]was developed, particularly, in order to ensure conscientious, scrupulous, and professional performance of official duties by employees of various STS bodies, as well as to strengthen intolerance to any phenomena of the corruption activities. It is possible to mention the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption of the STS as the example of the successful prevention of corruption activities in the tax area. This Agency ensures prevention of all tax offences and implements various measures in respect of prevention, identification, and termination of the offences, which are connected with corruption within the STS system. All messages and comments of the STS include information in respect of methods of communication with the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption of the STS in order to overcome illegal activity of the STSemployees[44].

4. Conclusions

Analysis of various opinions (which exist within the doctrinal environment) concerning classification of the administrative delicts and measures in respect of tax relations has made it possible to state that these opinions cannot describe the entire plurality of these offences. First of all, it is necessary improve analysis and processing of the delictological information, because of it is the basis for subsequent obligatory development and formation of the subsystem of the information support for prevention of offences in the tax area. Prevention of offences in the tax area with the help of remedies of the administrative law requires implementing the well-coordinated activities from the part of: subjects of the tax control, law-enforcement agencies, and general public. It is necessary to neutralise economic, lawful, moral, organisational, technical, and other reasons for committing delicts, which are connected with violation of: procedure of recovery and management of payment of taxes and duties; procedure of implementation of the taxpayers' rights in respect of taxes and duties, rights, obligations, competence of the controlling authorities and subjects of management of taxes and duties, as well as other violations of the tax legislation. It would make sense to apply such forms of interaction: studying and dissemination of good professional experience and practice; performance of common/combined programmes in order to identify various infringements in the tax area; determination of reasons and condition; mutual use of various possibilities for advanced professional training of employees of the law-enforcement agencies and tax authorities.

The proposed approach to classification of the administrative and delict measures for the system of general prevention does not attempt to be considered as the final and comprehensive solution of the problem. This system of measures (as any other classification) has a certain degree of conditionality and inexhaustibility. However, this approach has a certain theoretical and practical significance. The proposed approach can be was used in the course of subsequent development of the problem of classification of various measures of the administrative nature not only in the tax legislation, but in other branches of jurisprudence as well. Results of the conducted research make it possible to make conclusion in respect of the fact that efficient prevention of the tax offences is only possible in the case of utilisation of the entire potential capacities of the tax law, administrative law, as well as administrative and delict law. In these circumstances, perfection of the financial, economic, and administrative legislation plays a decisive role (it is also possible to state the same in respect of the procedure of registration and maintenance of the tax accounting of taxpayers and so on).

Abstract: Topicality and rationale of this research stem from the fact that the modern state, which is governed by the rule of law, must have the well-adapted and properly regulated system of taxation, which takes into account both interests of taxpayers, and interests of the state. In addition, such taxation system must be ensured by and accompanied with the system of legal safeguards and guarantees, which must include both responsibility for non-observance of the tax legislation, and prevention offences in this area. Therefore, goal of this paper is to ensure disclosure and description of the main directions of the preventive work and maintenance in respect of the offences in the tax area with the help of remedies and principles of the administrative law. As concerns various methods of analysis, it was conventional analytical method, which was selected as one of the main methods and which has made it possible to estimate efficiency of the administrative measures in the course of general prophylaxis within the taxation system in order to develop specific directions of regulation and settlement of the object of research. The paper presents essence offences in the tax area both at the legislative level, and within the doctrinal environment. Analysis of the policy in respect of prevention of and fighting with administrative offences in the sphere of application of the tax legislation wass carried out. Subjects of implementation of this policy, directions of their preventive activity and existing measures in the sphere of prevention of delicts in the tax area, as well as critical analysis of certain directions (which have been proposed by certain scientists) in order to improve estimation of efficiency of the preventive work and maintenance within tax relations have been determined. In addition, main directions of prevention of the offences in the tax area have been determined, and these directions were subdivided in two forms – form of a general action and form of the individual influence upon the objects of prevention. At the same time, there exists the substantial list of the general prevention measures, as well as special measures, which have been developed for improvement of the preventive influence upon the legal relations within the area of taxation. Materials of this paper present information of practical utility for wide circles of users: general public, economic entities, employees of fiscal authorities, and bodies of the legislative power.

*E-mail: irynakomarnytska@mailfence.com

** Il contributo è stato sottoposto a double blind peer review.

^aLviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine

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[2]https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2755-17#Text. (Accessed 17. 12. 2022)

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[4] M.P. KUCHERYAVENKO, Tax code of Ukraine: article-by-article commentary, Kharkiv, 2011.

[5]https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/80731-10#Text. (Accessed 17. 12. 2022)

[6]As in footnote 2.

[7] V. KHOMENKO, Prevention of crimes in the fiscal sphere as a component of financial security of the state, In: Scientific Bulletin of the National Academy of Internal Affairs 2 (2017), pp. 37-47.

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[9] K. PROKHOROV, Administrative torts in the tax sphere, In:South Ukrainian Law Journal 4(3) (2019), pp. 3-5.

[10] As in footnote 4

[11] S.V. VASYLENKO, Legal regulation of tax control in Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia, 2019.

[12] U. TURKSEN - A. ABUKARI, OECD’s global principles and EU’s tax crime measures,In: Journal of Financial Crime 28 (2) (2021), pp. 406-419.

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[17] As in footnote 2.

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[30] YU. VOLKOVA, Improving tax control as an element of tax policy formation, In: Formation of Market Relations in Ukraine 10 (65) (2012), pp. 23-27.

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[32] V. YEHARMINA, Tax control: theoretical principles and practice, In: Collection of Scientific Works of the National University of State Tax Service of Ukraine 1 (2011), pp. 166-176.

[33] As in footnote 25.

[34] M. K. HALIANTYCH – A. V. KOSTRUBA – N. I. MAYDANYK, Legal aspects of the implementation of a pledge of a bill of lading as a security: National legal realities, In: International Journal of Criminology and Sociology 10 (2021), pp. 363-367.

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[36] https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/403-95-п#Text. (Accessed 17. 12. 2022)

[37] I. M. BURDENKO – O. V. KRAVCHENKO, Analysis of the state and directions of development of the tax system of Ukraine and its impact on economic growth, In: Actual Problems of Economy 4 (2007), pp. 67-74.

[38] As in footnote 25.

[39] M. I. MELNYK – I. V. LESHCHUKH, Tax control in Ukraine: problems and priorities for improving efficiency, Lviv, 2015.

[40] I. SHCHYTVYNCHUK, Tax control: areas for improvement, Bulletin of ZhSTU 2 (48) (2015), pp. 190-193.

[41] As in footnote 25.

[42] As in footnote 33.

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[44] O.V. HALTSOVA – M.YU. KUTIEPOV – A.F. STEPANIUK, Recommendations of the council of europe as a guide for the development of criminal executive law of Ukraine, In: International Journal of Criminology and Sociology 9 (2020), pp. 1557-1566.