Klymenko M. The environmental taxation development as a component of the Ukrainian financial policy

The dissertation is devoted to the substantiation of theoretical and methodological provisions of environmental taxation development and the elaboration of practical recommendations for its improvement, ensuring strategic goals implementation of the state's financial policy and improving the population's quality of life. Approaches to the interpretation and the financial policy essence aimed at the formation of the maximum possible volume of financial resources. The exegesis of the Ukrainian financial policy components is given with an analysis of the tax policy features. It is well-founded that the main purpose of environmental taxes is to change behaviour that harms the environment. In addition, environmental taxes can be used to obtain financial resources and further financing of targeted environmental protection programs, and after that to correct the polluters' behaviour. The dissertation further developed the essence of the "environmental taxation system" concept as a set of compulsory payments (taxes and fees), the basis of which is a physical unit (or the corresponding equivalent) of a substance that has a proven negative impact on the natural environment. Using general scientific and special methods and techniques of cognition, the effectiveness of environmental taxation, and the forms of tax policy functioning in Ukraine and EU countries, namely Sweden, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Estonia, and Denmark, were investigated to identify optimal approaches to the tax mechanism operation. Methodological approaches to determining the level of state tax systems development as a whole and the limit of state intervention in the redistribution of GDP in particular with the help of the tax coefficient. The definition of effective tax rates (implicit tax rates) was substantiated based on the study. For this study, an analysis of the dynamics and the division of taxes with appropriate adaptation for Ukraine into the group of direct, indirect and social contributions. The classification of taxes by economic functions, applied in the EU, was used to analyze the distribution of the tax burden between the main factors of production. Scientific and methodological approaches to the definition, identification and improvement of environmental taxation mechanism elements and the structure of revenue distribution to the relevant levels of the Ukrainian budget system were proposed. An econometric model of the tax burden's influence on the environment in Ukraine was developed. The author has defined the strategic priorities of state policy in reforming the environmental taxation system, creating a reliable source to fund environmental protection activities, directions for Ukrainian environmental taxation mechanism improvement and stimulating pollution reduction in the global fight against climate change.