The financial responsibility conception and applying voluntary revenue disclosure programs (amnesty tax)

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to issues on financial responsibility in the Tax Law of Ukraine and impact on the use of measures of responsibility for the consequences of applying Voluntary Revenue Disclosure Programs (amnesty tax). There is stressed, that retrospective legal liability is a specific type of social liability. The financial responsibility conception has to be relevant to innovative financial tools. A wide practice of using these tools proves its’ efficiency in the area of tax relationships. We are talking about Voluntary Revenue Disclosure Programs that are known wider as “amnesty tax”, and related methods of indirect control for the incomes of individuals. Mentioned tools are well known in the world practice of financial control, and have been implemented in the national legal system. There is suggested to include a new statement into the content of the Tax Code of Ukraine. According to this statement, a taxpayer would be brought to financial responsibility for the non-compliance with the terms of the agreement on voluntary revenue disclosure. This statement could be as follows: Art. 126-1 “Violation of the obligations set out in the Voluntary Disclosure Agreement” of the Tax Code of Ukraine. However, there is devoted that the content of the Tax Code of Ukraine must also include a supplement to the content of the provision of Article 112 of the Tax Code of Ukraine subparagraph 112.8.13 of the following content: “committing an act (action or omission) by a person who made a one-time (special) voluntary declaration of assets”. There is outlined, that the application of Voluntary Revenue Disclosure Programs will affect the obligation to prove in the case where methods of indirect control will identify a discrepancy between revenues, applied in the frames of the Program, and costs of the declarant for the period.