IMPROVING METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE TAX BASE FOR PERSONAL INCOME TAX
The article analyzes the current practice and trends in taxation of citizens’ incomes in Russia in the context of rapid price growth, the development of the financial market, an increase in the number of non-professional participants among the population, high volatility and securities collapse. An increasing demand for equity in taxation of incomes of the population has been established both from the citizens themselves andfrom the scientific community. The analysis of researches in the field of increasing the importance of the social function of income tax and equity in income taxation shows that most authors in their scientific works pay most attention to setting personal income tax rates, in particular, progressive taxation, as well as establishing a minimum non-taxable income in various forms. At the same time, the analysis of methods for calculating the tax base for personal income tax, including the norms of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, methodological recommendations and explanations of the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service of Russia, as well as judicial practice shows that there are serious problems in determining the tax base for income tax in terms of the completeness of accounting for expenses, necessary to earn taxable income. This fact not only leads to an unreasonable overestimation of the amount of tax liabilities required by government agencies from individuals, but also increases the amount of income hidden from taxation. In addition, individuals are actually discriminated against when paying income tax compared to legal entities that pay corporate income tax on incomes similar in their economic essence, since the latter take into account expenses to a large extent when determining the tax base. Based on the above, recommendations are formulated to improve the methodological approach to determining the tax base for personal income tax.