The thesis is the first in Ukraine complex scientific research in which on the basis of the analysis of qualitative characteristic changes of the current criminal legislation in the field of the prevention of tax criminal offenses, in particular Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, it is developed a system of theoretical and legislative provisions that reproduce the specificity of legislative changes and prove expediency of further improvement of the provisions of considered norm.
The relevance of the chosen research topic is due to the fact that no country in the world is able to collect taxes in full, as evasion of tax revenues in all countries is one of the most common violations. Even in Western European countries and the United States, despite advances in tax law and financial control, the extent of tax evasion remains significant. In Ukraine, the transition to a market economy, development of entrepreneurship, emergence of new organizational structures of enterprises and a variety of forms of ownership contributed to the active development of tax legislation and the formation of tax relations. At the same time, a new type of criminal offense has appeared – tax evasion, fees (mandatory payments). As a result of this action, the state suffers great losses, as the budget does not receive significant funds, which form the basis of the revenue side of the budget, and improperly formed state extra-budgetary funds from the collection of taxes, fees (mandatory payments).
It is proved by the fact that the social and legal conditionality of the criminal law prohibition defined in Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, is confirmed by the presence of the following criteria of criminalization: the act being criminalized is socially dangerous; has a sufficient degree of prevalence; the expected positive consequences of criminalization exceed its negative consequences; criminalization does not contradict the Constitution of Ukraine, current law and international agreements of Ukraine; it does not contradict the norms of morality, etc. Moreover, this problem becomes especially relevant in relation to the degree of compliance with the social needs of investigated criminal offense, the signs of which are defined in the content of Part 1-3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The thesis proves that the categories of "social conditionality" and "criminalization of the act" are different (the second is part of the first), it is determined that compliance with the danger degree of the act, its prevalence, taking into account the positive and negative consequences of criminalization, compliance with moral standards and international -legal standards - are insufficient criteria that would prove the compliance of this norm with current living conditions of society, as well as the fact that the problem of "social conditionality" of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine will not lose relevance for quite some time.
Attention is drawn to the fact that the study of historical origins and formation of criminal liability for tax evasion, fees (mandatory payments) from ancient times to the present day proves the existence of certain typical patterns of a rather complex legal process of forming features of the act, and most importantly, determining effective sanction. If, on the one hand, the expediency of criminalizing this act was not usually in doubt, then, on the other hand, there were always problems: the relationship and harmonization of criminal law with other branches of law (including administrative law), and therefore concerned the importance of administrative prejudice; strengthening or reducing the banquet nature of the disposition of the norm, and hence the degree of dependence of law enforcement on interpretation of tax and customs legislation; choosing a system of punishment that would, on the one hand, correspond to the economic realities of the state, on the other one- did not narrow the boundaries of differentiation and individualization of criminal responsibility and punishment.
It is established that Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine since the adoption of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in 2001 until now, has undergone changes in the following areas. At first, regarding this article’s sanctions: the sanctions of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine became more severe in relation to those punishments which remained invariable. However, the main thing is that the legislator found it appropriate in certain cases (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) to waive the penalty of imprisonment: imprisonment for a term of five to ten years is replaced by a fine in the amount of 15,000 to 25,000 of non-taxable minimum incomes.
