Tax Incentive System for Innovative Activity: State and Prospects

The article examines the mechanisms of tax incentives for innovation of economic entities, which should focus on the development of national production and ensure sustainable macroeconomic growth. It was found that the main problems of the domestic economy, which create barriers to its innovative renewal, are the weak links between science and industry, lack of demand from industry and research and development, very low level of technical equipment of the economy, lack of market motivation for the development of knowledge-intensive production, worn-out equipment and, as a result, low efficiency of the economy as a whole. It is proved that among the main reasons for the reduction of budget revenues in the economy of Ukraine, in addition to the crisis, there are also tax benefits. For certain areas of business, this is one of the most attractive types of government support, as it means that some businesses are starting to pay less taxes. The rest, respectively, must be paid by other business structures or the state receives less money to finance its expenditures. As a result, inequality between taxpayers and a simultaneous reduction in the amount of funds that can be collected by the Ministry of Finance. Thus, in 2019 alone, due to the provision of tax benefits, the state budget did not receive budget revenues equivalent to 1.3 billion US dollars. Total budget losses from this source during 2015-2019 amounted to 6.4 billion dollars. It was found that in Ukraine there is almost no system for monitoring the impact of tax benefits, and this does not allow to assess the future effect of the introduction of such measures. Of course, this has important negative consequences for both public finances and the economy as a whole. The influence of granting tax benefits on the loss of state budget revenues is analyzed. Specific measures aimed at tax incentives for the development of innovation in Ukraine, the introduction of innovations by economic entities of all sizes are proposed. The need to rethink the criteria for granting tax benefits is noted. Foreign practice of tax incentives for innovation and investment activities, the cost of innovation is time-tested and quite diverse. Undoubtedly, it can be useful in the development of this area of tax incentives in Ukraine.