Legal policy of anti-Soviet governments in the tax sphere during the Russian civil war

Introduction: there have been written numerous works about the White movement, but the problems of state regulation of taxes remain unexplored in the historical and legal science. Purpose: this paper aims to study the main directions in the legal policy of anti-Soviet governments in the tax sphere and to determine its impact on the viability of state entities of ‘White’ Russia. Methods: dialectical, formal-logical, functional, and other general scientific research methods; special legal methods: comparative legal and formal legal. Results: we have examined the organization of the tax service, the problems of taxation and collection of taxes and fees; identified the main reasons for the failure of the legal policy of the White governments in this sphere; formulated conclusions about the impossibility of a radical change in tax legislation in the context of the civil war. Conclusions: tax legislation of the White governments was based on the laws of the former Russian Empire and the Provisional Government, with some adjustments being made in accordance with the conditions of the time. The pre-revolutionary tax apparatus was used to collect tax revenues without major changes in its structure. The rising inflation forced the legislators to increase the tax rates, introduce new sources of taxation, and revise tax benefits, with the main focus on the collection of indirect taxes. Since it was impossible to implement fundamental reform of the tax system, there were only made minor changes resulting in the convergence of direct taxes and property taxation. However, the tax authorities turned out to be unable to calculate and assign direct taxes in a timely manner, which was due to the unstable value and profitability of property, rapidly changing in the conditions of galloping inflation. For fear of growing social discontent, the amount of non-taxable income of working citizens was increased threefold, with the function of collecting taxes assigned to the administration of enterprises and institutions. The budgets of the municipalities dragged out a miserable existence since, according to the legislation, they were formed based on a residual principle. The population evaded the voluntary payment of taxes, and the legal policy was based on the use of forceful methods of tax collection with the police and military teams involved.