TAX BURDEN AND INNOVATION ACTIVITIES: THE INTERRELATION PROBLEM
TAX BURDEN AND INNOVATION ACTIVITIES: THE INTERRELATION PROBLEM

Summary/Abstract: This article provides a study of the theoretical and applied aspects of the relationship between tax burden and innovation activities. The hypothesis of the transmission mechanism between tax burden and innovation activities might be illustrated by the following logical chain: Tax burden –> Tax incidence –> … –> Innovation activities. It is reasonable to interpret tax burden and tax incidence relationship in terms of the approach of «losses-benefits».This approach creates a theoretical basis for explaining not only the reversed, but also the direct link – a situation where the increase of tax burden (up to a certain optimal amount) does not limit innovation activities. An attempt is made to evaluate the closeness of this relationship between tax burden and innovation activities in EU countries and Ukraine. For the calculation based on panel data from 27 EU countries we used the information of eight parameters, six of which are indicators of tax burden, and the last two – indicators of innovation activities. The tax burden in the EU, as defined by the percentage of all collected taxes to GDP, and the share of direct taxes are closely related to two innovation activities indicators – innovation activities index and the share of expenditure on innovation activities in GDP. Our findings in the area of the relationship between indicators of tax burden and innovation activities in Ukraine give grounds to draw the following conclusions: this relationship is unlikely to exist or, if it exists, it is inverse, i.e. an increase in the tax burden, (as the share of total taxes in GDP and as the share of indirect taxes in GDP) limits the volume of innovation activities. The conclusions stress the importance of the investigation of the relationship between tax burden and innovation activities for the Government tax management decisions.

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