Liability of legal entities for tax offenses: experience of foreign countries

The article is devoted to highlighting the experience of foreign countries regarding responsibility for tax offenses. It is noted that since the filling of the budget of any state depends on establishing a mechanism of control over the implementation of tax revenues from large taxpayers, namely from legal entities, the question arises of introducing legal responsibility for such entities for violation of established prescriptions. One of the tools to combat tax evasion in Europe is the standard tax justice model, which introduces several sanctions for legal entities that violate tax legislation. The existence of two approaches is emphasized: American and European. The first is characterized by harsh sanctions for committing tax offenses and the application of combined fines, while the second is more democratic, preventive in nature and establishes fixed amounts of fines depending on the magnitude of the violation and the presence of intent. The main attention is paid to the characteristics of liability that applies to legal entities in Italy and France. It was established that there were indicators for each country separately. The main attention is paid to the characteristics of liability that applies to legal entities in Italy and France. It was established that in 2020, the ‘Maturity Model’, a set of indicators developed for each country separately as a diagnostic tool for self-assessment, measures the maturity of the investigation of tax crimes, taking into account factors such as the efficiency of law enforcement, the level of cooperation between tax authorities and other law enforcement agencies, and the effectiveness of legal measures against tax offenders. The conducted study of applying the liability of legal entities of foreign countries for tax offenses gave grounds to conclude that its main types are administrative liability (including ‘quasi-criminal’) and criminal liability. The following prerequisites for the commission of tax offenses by legal entities are highlighted: imperfect policy on fighting corruption and fraud at the state level, which may include inadequate resources for enforcement, lack of transparency in government operations, or ineffective anti-corruption measures; loopholes in tax legislation, which became the impetus for the development of the shadow economy and, accordingly, the concealment of profits by legal entities, often by prior agreement; lack of a joint financial register of illegal financial flows; an inadequate system of sanctions against intermediaries who help legal entities avoid paying taxes and commit tax fraud.