Tax amnesties

This work is based on international experience of tax amnesty use and on the possibility of implementing such policies in Belarus. Despite the frequent use of this policy instrument in many countries, the extent of the feasibility, necessity and efficiency of its use is uncertain. The main advantage of a tax amnesty has traditionally been recognised as the opportunity to increase the state budget revenues and improve tax compliance.

However, in international practice there have been examples where a tax amnesty only worsened tax compliance, and direct and indirect losses as a result of the tax amnesty exceeded the corresponding revenues.

The paper suggests that the success of tax amnesties in many respects depends upon the background conditions and the specific format of the amnesty in question and highlights the variety of conditions conducive to the effectiveness of a tax amnesty as well as provides the basic elements that define and inform the aim of the format of a tax amnesty. The writers identify potential target groups for a proposed tax amnesty in Belarus as well as the format of the policy implementation for each of them.