THE FORMATION OF THE DOCTRINE ABOUT THE ECONOMIC ESSENCE OF TAXATION

Abstract

The article examines the interpretation of the economic essence of taxes in European and American science in comparison with the views of some domestic economists. On the eve of Ukraine's accession to the European Union, the relevance of this topic is due to the scientific and academic preparation of economists to study and borrow European experience in perceiving tax realities and managing them. It is found that at all successive stages of the tax policy of the EU and the USA from the classical period and Keynesianism to the neoclassical synthesis, demand-side economics and supply-side economics, the economic essence of taxation in the business sector was understood as the ability of tax measures to regulate production and consumption processes through their influence on the price level and the rate of profit. Modern western economists interpret the economic essence of taxes as payment from the state budget for the price of taxes for generally demanded indivisible collective services and benefits of law and order, defense, security, welfare, comfort for the population, and benefits for business. Thus, the basis for explaining the economic essence of the tax is the concept of price and market, which has great socio-political significance in justifying the advantages of the exchange economy and the bourgeois-capitalist system as a whole. In contrast to the outdated concept of relations and to replace it on the basis of the teachings of western science, a realistic market price concept of tax prices is proposed to explain the economic essence of taxation. The economic essence of taxes is that taxes are the price equivalent of services and non-market benefits provided by the state at the expense of tax revenues for consumers (individuals) and benefits for business (legal entities). With an organic relationship between taxation and accounting and control, the concept of tax prices of public goods and services by the state is especially useful for management and information support of the enterprise at the micro level.