Ways to reduce the amount of tax payments

The Russian Federation legislation says that taxpayer has the ability to implement actions aimed at protecting private property. Such actions include legal reduction of tax liabilities.

Rights and duties are enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Article 35 states that everyone has the right to own private property, namely to own, dispose and use it alone as well as jointly with others. And only the court has the right to make a decision on the deprivation of property [1].

Moreover, in accordance with Article 45 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, everyone has the right to defend its rights and freedoms in all ways that are not prohibited by law [1].

The topicality of the problem discussed in this article is that it considers one of the measures described above, namely tax planning aimed organizing its activities to reduce the amount of tax payments.

Tax planning is considered as the development and implementation of various strategies within the framework of current legislation in order to minimize the amount of tax payments. Its aim is to streamline economic activity in accordance with the current tax legislation and the financial and economic strategy of the development of the organization [3 P.162].

The elements of current tax planning are initiative and imperative (mandatory). The imperative elements include:

• -    the adoption of the accounting policy by the organization;

• -    the choice of the tax accounting option.

The legality of tax planning is confirmed by the Constitutional Court. At the same time there is a link between tax planning and tax liability when the law provides benefits to exempt from tax payment or to reduce the amount of tax payment.

It is impermissible to hold responsible for the actions of the taxpayer, which cause tax non-payment, or the reduction of the tax amount, but are the use of the legitimate rights of the taxpayer. These rights are connected with the legal exemption from payment of tax or with the most profitable forms of entrepreneurial activity and the optimal type of payment.

The system of corporate tax planning implies the search of strategy and tactics, determination of ways of its realization, the formation of an apparatus that can solve the following tasks.

Corporate tax planning is based on the principles of:

• -    legality, which should be based on strict observance of the rules of the current legislation when calculating and paying taxes;

• -    efficiency, i.e. the policy developed by the organization must be timely analyzed and corrected taking into account all changes in the current legislation;

• -    optimality - the application of the mechanisms of reduction the amount of tax liabilities that should not harm the strategic objectives of the organization and the interests of its owners.

At the same time, it is necessary to separate tax planning and tax evasion. Tax planning is based only on a legal basis, while tax evasion is carried out by taxpayer's tax offense or tax offense, i.e. by violating the generally recognized norms of tax or criminal law.

Evasion from tax payment is mostly realized in the form of evasion from tax registration, concealment of taxation objects, reduction of taxable base, failure to submit or untimely submission of tax accounting documents, as well as tax evasion, unlawful use of tax benefits, etc.

When evading taxes, the taxpayer's actions are always illegal, and for their commission by the legislation different types of liability are provided.

Depending on the nature of the actions taken in case of tax evasion and the severity of the consequences of such actions, they can be conventionally divided into two groups:

• -    non-criminal tax evasion;

• -    criminal tax evasion.

Non-criminal tax evasion is the taxpayer’s acts which are contrary to law, but they do not form the composition of a tax crime. That is why it is impossible to apply the measures of criminal liability to the taxpayer .

It should be noted, that the border between tax planning and tax evasion is not always obvious and undeniable. This is one of the key threats for inexperienced taxpayers to use tax planning methods aimed at reducing the tax payments in an independent way.

Criminal tax evasion includes the actions of the taxpayer, which are contrary to tax laws and lead to the formation of a tax crime. This entails the application of measures of criminal liability.

Section 6 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation defines tax offenses and establishes responsibility for their commission. At the same time, a presumption of innocence has been introduced. Tax authority must provide the evidence of the commission of an offense must provide by the tax authority.

The Tax Code determines circumstances that preclude the person from being brought to responsibility for committing a tax offense, excluding the person's guilt in committing a tax offense, as well as mitigating and aggravating circumstances.

A measure of liability is a tax sanction in the form of monetary penalties. The tax code classifies tax offenses and differentiates the measure of responsibility depending on the degree of severity.

The last section of Part 1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation determines the procedure for appealing the tax authorities and actions or inaction of their officials. The complaint can be filed with a higher tax authority or court [2].

Thus, when choosing a method to minimize tax payments, the taxpayer must consider that not only the legitimacy of the formal side of the operation and its documentary (contractual) registration, but also its subject matter, motives, goals, etc. In most cases, the taxpayer refers to methods of tax planning, actions that can be qualified as tax evasion. Among them are:

• -    illegal registration of real business transactions;

• -    renewal of contracts and changing their content after actual execution;

• -    payments for non-existent contractual relations;

• -    incorrect reflection of business transactions in the accounting and / or tax accounting.