Limitations for the Dependance of Business Activities' Taxation Consequences on Civil-Law Forms of Transactions

This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the degree of civil-law forms of transactions` impact on their tax effects. The author comes up with the review of Russian legislative tax evasion suppression mechanisms: from the good faith doctrine to the unjustified tax benefit test. Present work contains a critical analysis of the general anti-avoidance rule, envisaged by Art. 54.1 Tax Code of the Russian Federation, including its interaction with the previous legislative mechanisms, its operation in time terms. The author among other issues inquired into the provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which in fact settle the taxpayers` bad faith presuption going contrary to the constitutionally predetermined principles of the Russian Tax Law. Summarising the findings of the research committed, the author suggests mechanisms that from its point of view would harmonise Tax Law provisions with the Civil Law institutions and the legal language of the Constitution of the RF.