Гусева Т.А. Спор об экономической обоснованности расходов продолжается

Аннотация: The article points out that following the struggle against paper expenditure the tax authorities started to pay steadfast attention to economic feasibility of expenditure, for the purposes of taxation. The tax payers and the tax authorities may have different ideas about economic correctness of specific expenses; in this connection, inevitably there are plenty of conflicts and disputes on these issues. On the one hand, it is mentioned that the uncertainty of the “economic correctness of expenses” notion promotes tax terrorism as any expenses may be called into question. On the other hand – adoption of article 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, in comparison to the earlier effective closed list of expenses, is a step forward since it allows to record the expenses which the law does not refer to expressly. The analysis of court practice shows that for the purposes of taxation one the same expenditure for are accepted by some courts and rejected by other courts. The estimation of economic feasibility in some cases is connected to violations of the law in other fields, having nothing to do with taxes. In this connection, provisions of departmental statutory acts are provided, and court practice is analyzed. The author analyses the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in relation to the address of a group of deputies of the State Duma with an inquiry on expertise of the constitutionality of provisions of item 1 of clause 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federations establishing that, with the purpose of calculation of the profit tax, the expenses proved and documentary supported, carried out (suffered) by the tax payer are recognized; the proved expenses are understood as economically justified expenses which estimation is expressed in monetary form. In opinion of the applicants, these challenged provisions are uncertain, contain estimated and duplicating concepts, and these results in their arbitrary application in practice and, as consequence, to violation of constitutional rights of tax payers. It is stated that one of the reasons of the disputable allocation to the “economic feasibility” category is the absence of economic activity standards for the majority of industries, and methods of definition of expenses. In fact, the question of economic feasibility of expenses is not only a legal one but also economic. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is actively collecting corresponding data, processing it and making standards.

Abstract: The article points out that following the struggle against paper expenditure the tax authorities started to pay steadfast attention to economic feasibility of expenditure, for the purposes of taxation. The tax payers and the tax authorities may have different ideas about economic correctness of specific expenses; in this connection, inevitably there are plenty of conflicts and disputes on these issues. On the one hand, it is mentioned that the uncertainty of the “economic correctness of expenses” notion promotes tax terrorism as any expenses may be called into question. On the other hand – adoption of article 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, in comparison to the earlier effective closed list of expenses, is a step forward since it allows to record the expenses which the law does not refer to expressly. The analysis of court practice shows that for the purposes of taxation one the same expenditure for are accepted by some courts and rejected by other courts. The estimation of economic feasibility in some cases is connected to violations of the law in other fields, having nothing to do with taxes. In this connection, provisions of departmental statutory acts are provided, and court practice is analyzed. The author analyses the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in relation to the address of a group of deputies of the State Duma with an inquiry on expertise of the constitutionality of provisions of item 1 of clause 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federations establishing that, with the purpose of calculation of the profit tax, the expenses proved and documentary supported, carried out (suffered) by the tax payer are recognized; the proved expenses are understood as economically justified expenses which estimation is expressed in monetary form. In opinion of the applicants, these challenged provisions are uncertain, contain estimated and duplicating concepts, and these results in their arbitrary application in practice and, as consequence, to violation of constitutional rights of tax payers. It is stated that one of the reasons of the disputable allocation to the “economic feasibility” category is the absence of economic activity standards for the majority of industries, and methods of definition of expenses. In fact, the question of economic feasibility of expenses is not only a legal one but also economic. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is actively collecting corresponding data, processing it and making standards.