OBJECT OF TAXATION UNDER DIGITALIZATION

The article investigates the problem of content change of the concept object of taxation in the Russian tax law on the path to digital economy. The purpose of the article is to analyze the provisions of the Russian tax legislation, international norms, as well as academic literature devoted to identification of certain new goods and phenomena as possible objects of taxation, thus updating the concept of the object of taxation itself. The development of information technologies generates the following unavoidable problems related to the object of taxation concept content, which allows reviving the discussion about the content of this tax and legal category: the impossibility to assess implementation operations as potential tax objects with the help of the classical triad «product, work, service»; recognition in certain situations (for example, in case of electronic money payment) as the object of taxation is not one, but a set of legal facts (cause of action); the need to establish the object of taxation through the so-called «tax relationship» between the object and the subject of taxation. In connection with the first problem, the author proposes to unambiguously define in the Tax Code the legal nature of transactions with digital products for tax purposes, treating them as a new type of service. The conclusion is based on the experience of international regulation and suggests supplementing the provisions of the Tax Code in terms of legal regulation of the concept taxation object as well as VAT taxation. The re-search of the second problem leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to clarify the rules of the Tax Code when the counterparties carry out taxable transactions, whose settlements are made with electronic money. In this situation, the object of taxation is not single, but suggests several legal facts-actions of the potential tax-payer. On the third problem the author raises the issues of identification of the taxpayer in case of certifying the taxable transaction by the digital signature analogue. Taking into account international experience, as well as national civil law regulations, it is considered necessary to include provisions on digital certificates and digital signatures in tax legislation.