Возврат излишне уплаченного косвенного налога: гармонизация интересов налогоплательщика, носителя налога и государства

Abstract

The article sets the task to study the issues of the right to a refund of overpaid tax in relation to indirect taxes. Indirect tax is included in the price of goods, works, services sold and its burden is thus transferred to the buyer. The article analyzes the limitations of the taxpayer's right to return overpaid indirect tax, developed in the judicial practice of Russia and other countries, due to the transfer of the burden of paying it to the tax bearer. Such restrictions are embodied in the passing on defense doctrine that is criticized in the article. The main legal defect of this doctrine is that the state reserves funds that by law should not belong to it referring to the fact that they do not belong to the payer of indirect tax either since he received them at the expense of the tax bearer. However, such a tax is not returned to the indirect tax carrier by the state due to the lack of legal mechanisms for such a refund and the technical difficulties of interacting with a large number of tax carriers. Thus, the doctrine of passing on defense serves the purpose of justifying the unjust enrichment of the state and provokes it to introduce and levy illegal indirect taxes that then can not be returned. The author proposes other ways to harmonize the interests of the state, the taxpayer and the tax bearer in the exercise of the right to return the overpaid indirect tax, taking into account the task of ensuring the stability of budgetary sources. The article proposes to establish by law a special procedure for the return of overpaid indirect tax and return such tax in installments in the form of special digital bonds using blockchain technology.