The method of tax law and its characteristics

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Tax law is the most important branch of jurisprudence in terms of studying the sphere of tax legal relations, training personnel for it, as well as implementing the state's priorities in the field of regulating these communications. What are the features of the subject and method of this industry? What are the nuances in the interpretation of these terms?

What is tax law?

Before considering the method of tax law, let's consider what this legal branch is. The corresponding term can be understood in 3 different contexts:

- as an academic discipline;

- as a branch of science;

- as a section of national law.

All these interpretations of the concept of "tax law" are interconnected. So, the corresponding academic discipline and branch of science study, first of all, the marked section of national law. In turn, the publication of regulatory legislation, as well as law enforcement practice, largely depend on the qualifications of lawyers, which are largely acquired in educational institutions, as well as the level of scientificelaboration of certain problems that are related to tax law.

Subject of tax law

It can be noted that for all 3 interpretations of the corresponding term, a common subject is characteristic: a set of legal relations that are formed with the participation of state bodies and taxpayers in the status of individuals or legal entities. The subject of these legal relations may be the procedure for establishing, calculating, transferring to the budget, as well as collecting various taxes, as well as exercising control over their payment and implementing liability measures for violations of the relevant branch of legislation.

The relevant legal relationship can thus:

- to be researched at the level of scientific discipline;

- reflected in teaching materials;

- be subject to tax laws.

These types of communications can be carried out using various methods of tax law. Let's study their specifics.

The essence of tax law methods

The method of tax law is, in accordance with the traditional approach, a set of legal mechanisms that allow certain subjects to varying degrees to influence the subject of tax law. For example, representatives of science - to study legal relations, teachers - to interpret them within the framework of the academic discipline, the legislator - to reflect in regulations.

Let's study how the method in question can be understood in the context of its consideration as a sectionnational law.

Method in the context of national law

In the appropriate context, the method of tax law is usually characterized as the approach of the legislator to the regulation of various legal relations in the field of taxes and fees. It can be:

- public law;

- civil.

In the first case, the legislator applies the mechanisms established by the current regulatory enactments to compel certain persons to comply with tax payment orders. Thus, the imperative method of regulation of legal relations is involved. In the second, the actions of the legislator are reduced mainly to recommendations and approvals. In fact, a dispositive method is being implemented in tax law, according to which certain subjects of legal relations have the opportunity to choose the way of behavior in certain communications.

Let's consider the key features that characterize the method in tax law.

Signs of the tax law method

First of all, it has a public law character. The tax obligations of citizens and organizations are regulated at the level of federal, regional and municipal legislation, which, in terms of regulating the main communications, is of a normative nature. This is explained, first of all, by the fact that the collection of taxes is a key procedure in terms of the formation of the state budget, the material support of the main institutions of the state. This feature of understanding the essence of the relevant paymentspredetermines the emergence of the priority of public interests over private ones. Obligations to pay taxes are thus imposed equally on all citizens, and tax benefits are determined in a regulatory manner for persons with the same status.

Choosing tax law method

The specific method of tax law is important from the point of view of the choice by the state of the most effective mechanisms for ensuring the fulfillment by citizens of their obligations to transfer certain payments to the budget. In this case, the priority may be the use of precisely those approaches that can be characterized as imperative, involving the issuance of binding instructions for taxpayers by the competent authorities.

The ratio of imperative and dispositive mechanisms

At the same time, increasing the efficiency of managing legal relations in the field of paying taxes to the budget may require the government to also use civil mechanisms. The study of the degree of their influence can be included in the problem of the method of tax law, which is relevant both for the sphere of practical lawmaking, and, in particular, for the field of scientific research.

The way in which dispositive and imperative approaches should be correlated is determined by taking into account many factors that are often revealed only upon the implementation and application of legal norms. They can be socio-economic, institutional in nature, predetermined by internal processes or, for example, by foreign policy.

Priority of the imperativemethod

But, one way or another, in the Russian legal system, a situation has developed in which imperative methods of tax law still receive greater priority. This or that subject of legal relations receives, thus, public or personal - but in the manner prescribed by regulatory enactments, instructions regarding their actions in the context of fulfilling obligations to pay taxes and fees to the budget.

Meaning of dispositive method

If necessary, the legislator applies various methods of interpreting the norms of tax law, fixes them in recommendations and explanatory documents, if the norms of law in certain provisions of the legislation are dispositive. In some cases, this approach may be even more effective than mandatory regulation. As a rule, it is practiced if one or another type of communication is difficult to regulate at the level of federal regulations.

In this case, the competent authorities - most often the Federal Tax Service, apply certain means and methods of interpreting the norms of tax law, after which they fix the results of the work done in letters and other legal acts that are published in the prescribed manner. In many cases, the content of such documents is considered by taxpayers in the first place, while the prescriptions of federal regulations are not applied de facto as regulatory ones, although they have great legal force.

Dispositive norms in the federallegislation

There are federal regulations in Russian legislation that are dispositive in their legal nature. For example, these are the provisions of the Tax Code regarding the choice of a taxation system by entrepreneurs. Provided that the activity of the firms they establish meets certain criteria in terms of turnover and number of staff, they can, in particular, work according to the simplified system and thus pay significantly less taxes than in the case of working under the general method of taxation.

In turn, when determining the procedure for calculating the amounts of specific payments to the budget, the methods of tax law use just the same imperative mechanisms: the relevant rules of law prescribe how the tax base, rate, tax period and other conditions for transferring payments to the state budget.

In general, the regulation of legal relations in the field of taxes and fees is regulated at the level of the federal legislation of Russia. But options are possible in which the method of tax law and its characteristics will be determined based on the norms of regional sources of law. Let's consider this nuance in more detail.

Methods of tax law in the framework of the application of regional legislation

Indeed, the bulk of the norms governing the procedure for the fulfillment by citizens and organizations of obligations in terms of paying taxes and fees is established at the level of federal legal acts - primarily the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. But in a numbercases, the provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation should be supplemented by the norms adopted by the authorities of the Russian regions.

For example, this feature characterizes the regulation of the payment of tax on the property of individuals represented by real estate. The procedure for calculating the corresponding payment in terms of its main components is determined at the level of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. But a number of key elements of the property tax are determined taking into account regional rules of law. So, up to a certain point, it is the authorities of the subject of the Russian Federation who determine whether the corresponding payment will be calculated on the basis of the inventory or cadastral value of real estate. In turn, regardless of which particular option the regional authorities choose, they also set the rates for the tax in question - but within the limits set in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The ratio of regional and federal legislation when choosing a method of tax law

Thus, from the point of view of the operation of regional sources of norms, the method of tax law will be as imperative as if federal legislation were applied: taxpayers registered in the corresponding region will be required to follow the provisions of the legislation approved in the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. In turn, from the point of view of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the norms that determine, firstly, the scheme for calculating property tax, and secondly, the rate for it, can only be applied if the specific provisions of the sources of law establishing these elements of payment, not accepted by the regional legislator.

Determine whethera specific method of tax law actually imperative at the federal level in some cases is possible only if the patterns of correlating the relevant rules of law with those adopted at the regional level are identified. Thus, from the point of view of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, certain norms are accepted only if the provisions regulating the same sphere of relations are not adopted by the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In turn, regional legislation in this case can be considered as a source of mandatory norms equivalent to federal ones, despite the fact that its legal force is lower than that of the Tax Code.

Normativity of legal acts in tax law

It will be useful to study one more aspect of the application of the method in tax law: the normative nature of the provisions of acts issued by authorities. The method of tax law is usually characterized as a way of regulating legal relations through just the same regulatory sources represented by federal or regional laws, in some cases - by legal sources.

In turn, in many cases, the corresponding method can also be represented by non-normative sources. They are also issued by the authorities, however, their action is aimed at a certain circle of people or even a specific citizen or organization. For example, such a source may be an order to pay a tax that was not transferred by one or another person on time, as a result of which an arrears formed. However, any prescription of the appropriate type - be it 1 in a row, 2 or 3(tax law, subject, method, place, its sources can thus be determined at the level of non-normative acts) should be based on the provisions, in turn, of normative legal acts. That is, be legal and reasonable.

Thus, both mechanisms for managing legal relations in the field of taxes and fees - normative and non-normative, are also closely related.

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So, we have studied the specifics of the subject and method of tax law. First of all, what matters is the context in which they are considered - scientific, educational or institutional-legal. As for the subject of tax law, it retains its integrity in all 3 contexts.

In turn, the method of the relevant branch of law will differ depending on who it is used - a researcher, teacher or legislator. Its use will predetermine the order of actions of this or that subject of communications. For example, if this is a legislator, then in accordance with the chosen method of tax law - imperative or dispositive, the provisions of normative acts issued by authorities in order to regulate legal relations in the field of paying taxes and fees will be formed.