ON THE ORIGIN OF TAXES AND TAXATION

Abstract

The paper analyzes the issues relating to the origin of taxes and taxation and their evolution. Despite the uncertainty regarding the period of the emergence of taxes and taxation, the author expresses the view according to which taxes in one form or another have existed almost since the origin of the society and the state. At the same period the taxation mechanism – a specific procedure for the calculation and payment of tax – began forming. Together, taxes and taxation have contributed to the emergence of a special kind of public activity called «fiscal activity» or «fiscal policy». Studying the taxes and taxation showed the essential difference between these interrelated phenomena. The main difference is that taxation, unlike taxes, actually contributes to the sort of change in the tax attitude, when the potential payment of tax, as a rule, is transformed into a specific person’s tax duty to alienate his own funds to provide financial support for the activities of the state and (or) municipalities. Due to the new external challenges faced by Russia, the author makes an assumption about the necessity of rethinking and adjustment of the national tax system and taxation with the emphasis on keeping the existing principles of taxation, mediating five most important properties of a «good» tax system with the taxation level, acceptable to the public and organizations and sufficient for the state.