Simplified Taxation System and Unified Tax on Imputed Income: Objectives, Problems, Long-term Vision

One of the main goals of the Russian tax policy for recent years is to find some opportunities to reduce the tax burden on small companies. Increase of tax incentives is usually associated with the growth of small business, but the pace of development of this economy sector in Russia is still low and the tax system loses its due degree of simplicity and transparency. Therefore, the subject of the study is the problem of small business taxation in Russia. The article points out that special tax regimes, such as the simplified taxation system and the unified imputed income tax for certain types of activity, have lost their targeted nature to date, since their development has no internal logic and is carried out mainly under the current economic challenges without taking into account the long-term effects of the measures taken. Against this background the purpose of the study is to develop recommendations for improvement of above mentioned special tax regimes. The authors conclude that, on one hand, regular increases in turnover thresholds for the purposes of simplified taxation system is an unpromising tax policy direction and, on the other hand, granting access to the taxation system in the form of a unified tax on imputed income regardless of a taxpayer’s turnover defeats partially the objectives of small business support. In common, this creates the conditions for abuse and therefore requires revision of certain provisions of the Russian tax legislation.