Unified agricultural tax in fishery. Issues and judgements

In Russia, there are various forms of economic support for agricultural enterprises: subsidies, grants, target programs and tax incentives. A special role in state support for agriculture belongs to tax incentives, most important being opportunity for farmers to apply a special taxation system - unified agricultural tax. It undoubtedly significantly reduces the fiscal load on the industry, creates favorable development conditions; however, its use has negative consequences. A typical example of the irrational side of introducing the unified agricultural tax in the national economy is an opportunity to use in the fishing industry since 2009. Creating an artificial economic barrier between fishing enterprises which use the tax and the related industries (wholesale trade and fish processing enterprises) located in the common tax system due to the loss of VAT negatively affected the development of the fisheries sector as a whole. The purpose for the study is to identify problems of applying the scheme of a unified agricultural tax in the fisheries industry and offer ways of their solution. The relevance of the research is determined by the strategic objective of effective development of the fisheries industry in general to ensure food security of Russia. The research is based on information methods of data structuring. The evidence framework is built based on assessment of the economic effect of applying the unified agricultural tax for the fishery industry, study of government benefits, and consideration of inter-industry relations of the fisheries industry with related industries through the prism of taxation. The study substantiated the comparison of the fisheries industry with the sector of subsoil use from the point of view of the economic theory; estimated the impact of applying the unified agricultural tax in the fisheries industry on its economy; highlighted the negative consequences of introducing the single agricultural tax, and suggested ways of improving taxation in modern conditions. The research results have practical relevance for public administration; they help realistically assess the effectiveness of implementing a special tax scheme of a unified agricultural tax in the fisheries sector for further decisions about the feasibility of its application.