The Russian practice of value added tax: problems and possible ways of their solution

Indirect taxation is one of the main sources of formation of the state budget of the Russian Federation. One of the taxes related to indirect taxation is value added tax (VAT). The history of application of this tax is very long and ambiguous. According to the statement and opinion of the supporters of this tax, which came to replace the turnover tax, VAT has undeniable advantages. According to other experts, its application was accompanied by serious violations of the legislative norms governing it, as well as discussions among specialists of the validity of these norms. It is sufficient to say that no tax legislation of any country that applies VAT has any legislation that defines the concept of «value added». The absence of this concept, enshrined in law, makes it practically impossible to define such an important parameter of the tax as the tax base and, accordingly, calls into question the economic feasibility of VAT as a tax. Nevertheless, taking into account the fiscal capacity of VAT, no state is going to refuse to use it to fill the budget...