The dissertation provides a comprehensive study of the issues related to the legal regulation of such a tax and legal construct as tax benefits. The study of the central category begins with the identification of general provisions on tax benefits, within which the legal nature of tax benefits and the principles of their establishment are consistently considered, and classification criteria are proposed for categorising the analysed phenomena into types. The author then concentrates on the analysis of the regulatory procedure for the establishment of tax benefits in legislation, particularly detailing the procedure for establishing tax benefits at two levels: state and local. Finally, the research interest is directed towards examining the correlation between rights and obligations in the application of tax benefits by taxpayers.
Before outlining the legal nature of tax benefits, the author defines the concept of the "legal nature of a legal phenomenon" and proposes the following algorithm of scientific research: first, the author identifies the general characteristics of legal benefits, then notes the specific characteristics of tax benefits, and then correlates the latter with similar categories, including state support, state aid, tax incentives, tax preferences.
As a result of studying the opinions of scientists, the author has compiled a list of general characteristics of legal benefits, which include: their belonging to auxiliary methods of legal regulation; their establishment at the level of regulatory legal acts rather than individual acts; their non-personalised nature, which is manifested in the establishment of conditions for the application of benefits, which a subject or the nature of their activity must meet in order to use them; the mechanism of their manifestation, which consists in the establishment of additional, exclusive rights for subjects, or complete or partial exemption from obligations; the purpose of their foresight, which is manifested in: a) the existence of subjective and/or objective factors that burden the legal status of subjects or complicate their ability to conduct certain activities, b) the awareness of the need to introduce improved legal conditions for certain groups of persons or activities carried out by such persons, in order to achieve the objectives that determine the introduction of benefits.
The peculiarities of tax benefits include 1) their establishment within a specific system of legislation; 2) their provision at the level of Ukrainian tax legislation; 3) manifested in the fulfilment by the taxpayer of their tax liability, taking into account the peculiarities caused by the application of benefits; 4) the mechanism of their effect consists in the exemption of the taxpayer from the obligation to accumulate and pay a tax or fee, or in the establishment of the taxpayer's obligation to pay a tax or fee in a reduced amount; 5) provided in the forms established by law; 6) are non-personalised and applied based on the grounds provided for by law; 7) may be established for both taxes and fees; 8) may be provided on a permanent or temporary basis; 9) are an optional element of the legal tax mechanism.
Based on the correlation between tax benefits and other legal categories, the author determines that tax benefits, while sharing certain common features with state support, state aid, tax incentives, and tax preferences, constitute an independent phenomenon with specific characteristics, through which their differentiation occurs. At the same time, tax benefits occupy a prominent place within these legal concepts, since they are: 1) a form of state aid, which covers the financial (economic) and organisational component of state support; 2) a positive tax incentive that activates the lawful behaviour of taxpayers; 3) one of the means of implementing tax preferences.
Before discussing specific principles of establishing tax benefits, the author provides a definition of this concept. Thus, these principles are substantive and procedural requirements of a constitutional nature aimed at streamlining the activities of subjects authorised to introduce, change or cancel relevant tax preferences, the system of which is composed of the relevant general principles of law, which reveal their influence through their industry-oriented context, as well as certain principles of tax law.
It is noted that the system of principles for establishing tax benefits includes: legality, legal certainty (its substantive and procedural aspects), reasonableness, proportionality, fiscal sufficiency, equality of all taxpayers before the law, prevention of any manifestations of tax discrimination, social justice, tax efficiency, tax neutrality, and stability (as a procedural aspect of the principle of legal certainty).
