Development of the tax administration in Russia: Results and prospects

Abstract

The study aims to identify the milestone events in the development of the tax administration in post-Soviet Russia and to offer recommendations for its further improvement. We tested the hypothesis about the relationship between the development of the tax system and tax administration, which, once established, can play a role in the improvement of the tax administration’s efficiency. The study relies on quantitative (regression and correlation analysis, factor analysis, principal component analysis) and qualitative methods (classification, thesaurus analysis, SWOT-analysis, critical points method). We also analyzed the legal acts describing the goals (target indicators) for the development of the tax system and tax administration and propose a set of integral indices characterizing these processes. The key events (factors) for the period starting from the 1990s to the present were identified and ranked in order of importance. Their impact was investigated with the help of SWOT-analysis and factor analysis methods. We found that in the given period, there was an increase in the correspondence between the goals of the tax administration and the goals of the tax system. This means that the tax administration’s management and staff have become more motivated to upscale their priorities and to orient their activities towards public good. The analysis of indices for the given periods has shown improved performance of the tax system and tax administration. The index of tax administration development is based on four indicators. Between the 1990s and 2010s, the index grew by 13% mainly because of the expanded scope of functions of the tax administration, staff downsizing and optimization of the remuneration system. We found that there is a significant statistical relationship between the indices of development of the tax system and tax administration.