Challenges and Prospects of Taxation in the Digital Economy: Symposium “Theory and Practice of Tax Reforms” as a Case of Focused Discussion in the Post-Soviet Space

Economic debates in Europe and America for many decades by now have been dealing with such problems as optimization of tax systems, eco-balance in taxes and ways to maximize the efficiency of tax reforms. Post-Soviet economists of the 1990s did not have an opportunity to participate in such discussions which would have proven useful since there was an urgent need for adequate theoretical justification of the tax reforms in CIS countries and other former Soviet republics. To fill this gap in research, two economists Igor Mayburov from Russia and Yuriy Ivanov from Ukraine organized the first in the post-Soviet space symposium on taxation in 2009. Since then, the symposium has been regularly held in different cities and attracted leading tax specialists from various countries. Each symposium focuses on a specific theme, selected from the most relevant tax problems faced by post-Soviet countries. The theme of the next symposium is announced 1.5 years in advance. Meanwhile, the participants conduct their studies and prepare monographs. The 11th International Symposium “Theory and Practice of Tax Reforms” was held on 30 June – 6 July 2019 in Tomsk and was hosted by the Institute of Economics and Management of the National Research Tomsk State University. The symposium was devoted to theoretical and practical aspects of the transformations in taxation and tax administration caused by the digital economy. 95 specialists from 40 universities and 26 cities of six countries (Russia, Belarus, Germany, China, Slovenia and Ukraine) took part in the symposium. The symposium was also supported by 35 universities. The symposium provided a platform for discussion of the most relevant and up-to-date issues of tax reforms, enabling its participants to devise new theoretical and methodological approaches to enhancing tax policies and taxation systems, and, last but not least, to form new research collaborations. The symposium included a plenary session, five panels, a round table, administrative practicum, and presentation of journals in the field of taxation. This article aims to inform the reader about the specific characteristics of this symposium, its results and potential role in the improvement of tax systems of different countries