«an Experience in the Theory of Taxes» by N.I. Turgenev: History and Modernity

The aim of the study is a comparative analysis of N.I. Turgenev’s contribution to the development of tax issues and its assessment in the context of modernity (new reality). The work uses historical-retrospective, historical-genetic, program-target and structural-functional methods of analyzing the works of N.I. Turgenev himself, as well as a wide range of publications about him, published at different times. Among the most significant socio-economic ideas of N.I. Turgenev’s views on the implementation of tax policy, theory and practice of taxation are presented in the work. Such aspects as the relationship between direct and indirect taxation, progressive income tax, taxable base, methods of collecting and calculating taxes are highlighted. The position that despite the Western character of his ideological orientation, N.I. Turgenev was an original and independent Russian scientist-economist who made a certain contribution to the development of tax theory is put forward and argued. An assessment is given to the controversial thesis about the allegedly non-independent nature of N.I. Turgenev’s economic views in the field of tax theory and practice (E.I. Tarasov, J. Zweinert).