Problems of Identification of Tax Expenses

The subject of the study is the reduction of income as a result of the application of benefits and preferences for taxes, fees and mandatory payments to the budgets of public entities, as well as contributions to the budgets of state extra– budgetary funds. The objectives of the work are to form a holistic view of the content of the concept of “tax expenditures” and the boundaries of its use, to establish differences between tax expenditures and tax benefits based on the analysis and systematization of Russian and foreign practices, as well as scientific research to determine the basic structure of taxation and identification of tax expenditures. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of unambiguous criteria for recognizing a tax benefit as a tax expense in Russia. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the development of the author’s classification of approaches to determining the basic structure of taxation based on international experience, which made it possible to formulate proposals to clarify the criteria for identifying tax expenditures, including the definition of a new target category of tax expenditures. The article substantiates the importance of regulating the criteria for identifying tax expenditures; a comprehensive analysis of the volume and number of tax benefits established by federal law is carried out; the role of tax expenditures in the system of state financial regulation of the socio-economic development of the country is clarified. It is concluded that it is necessary to allocate a separate target category of tax expenditures — “international tax expenditures”.