Comparative Legal Analysis of Tax Measures Taken in Crisis Conditions

The world's economic and legal systems are facing a huge challenge to overcome the negative consequences imposed by recent social distortions. In 2020, what started as a health crisis quickly turned into an economic-social problem where an express response was required to ensure the functioning of social actors. This economic-social crisis was followed in a short period by new security crises with additional consequences on national systems. The response to the newly created conditions requires a multidisciplinary approach that will include measures of a health, economic, social, and security nature, adopted on the principles of legislation and expediency within the national legal systems. These measures have their own direct or indirect tax component. The purpose of this paper is to perform a legal analysis of the tax measures taken in the national systems. The scope of the research covers the member states and candidate countries for membership in the European Union. The focus is on the more recent crisis period, with particular emphasis on the COVID-19 period. The analysis primarily focuses on the legal element of the tax measures, the procedure of their implementation, and their legal nature. Also analyzed are the challenges that they have on the taxpayers and the administrative authority for their performance. The method of comparison in the paper is used to compare the similarities and differences between the tax measures in the different national systems and to detect the legal challenges imposed by the established crisis conditions. At the end, conclusions are given about the current situation and recommendations on how the establishment of tax systems should be in the future in crisis conditions.