Classification of shadow economy phenomena

Šešėlinės ekonomikos kaip mokslinės problemos aktualumas siejamas su vienu svarbiausių makroekonominių rodiklių-bendrojo vidaus produkto (BVP) - netikslumu, taip pat su šalies konsoliduoto biudžeto suplanuotų pajamų nesurinkimu. Mokslinėje ir taikomojoje literatūroje šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškinių klasifikacijos nėra pakankamai detalizuotos. Straipsnyje tiriami šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškiniai ir jų klasifikavimas. Autorė, vertindama šešėlinę ekonomiką mokesčių administravimo aspektu, išskiria tokias mokesčių vengimo ir slėpimo atvejų grupes: 1) tyčinis mokesčių vengimas ir slėpimas apeinant teisės aktų nuostatas, nesilaikant juose nustatytų reikalavimų, bei mokesčių grobstymas deklaruojant fiktyvius sandorius ir susigrąžinant dalį mokesčių, 2) beviltiškų mokesčių nepriemokų 3) mokesčių nemokėjimas atsiradus neaiškumams ir (arba) kilus mokestiniams ginčams dėl mokesčių įstatymų bei kitų mokesčių administravimą reglamentuojančių teisės aktų taikymo. Siūlomoje Lietuvos šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškinių klasifikacijoje išskiriami trys hierarchiniai lygiai. Pirmajame lygmenyje šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškiniai grupuojami pagal ūkio subjektų grupes. Antrajame lygmenyje išskiriami konkretūs minėtų ūkio subjektų grupių vykdomi šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškiniai, kvalifikuojami kaip teisės pažeidimai. Trečiajame lygmenyje identifikuojamos mokesčių, kurie negauti į šalies konsoliduotą biudžetą dėl antrajame lygmenyje išskirtų teisės pažeidimų, rūšys. Tokia klasifikacija gali būti naudinga rengiant šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškinių stebėsenos sistemą, vertinant šešėlinės ekonomikos reiškinių tendencijas.On the international level the definition of shadow economy and its classification in terms of scientific and organizational level is not well-established, thus the definition of shadow economy selected by a researcher depends on the goals of the survey. The author focuses on the following survey subject: shadow economy covering economic activities which are executed without compliance with to the provisions and limitations of the law when such activities are rigidly finetuned and regulated. In other words, it means economic activities without adequate information by public institutions remain unknown to the public because the economic actors avoid to pay taxes, do not comply with the established standards (minimum wages, social labor protection standards, etc.), do not provide data to statistic agencies, and seek to reduce payable taxes in other illegal ways. The article analyzes shadow economy's content through the prism of tax administration. Shadow economy in the practice of tax administration is evaluated by calculating a tax gap. A tax gap is described as a difference between potential tax amounts that could be collected if tax payers would correctly calculate and pay taxes on time required by law regulations and the tax amount that is paid de facto. A tax gap is called the amount of the tax revenue that isn't received by to the country's consolidated budget in tax non-payment effects: tax avoidance and tax evasion. The article analyzes the problem of shortage of shadow economic elaboration and classification according to the economical activity phenomena. The author proposes the methodological principles of shadow economy phenomena, related to tax evasion and tax avoidance, identification and classification. Usually shadow economy phenomena are closely interrelated; however they may occur in a single form as well. In some sources fictitious transactions seeking to include non-pursued economic activity in the official accounts (for example, remittance of money without supplying any goods) are attributed rather to fictitious than to shadow economy. However, both non-inclusion of factual operations of the economic activity and inclusion of fictitious operations in the accounting is „handy" both to circumvent tax laws (by exploiting gaps in legislation) and to evade taxes which results in the expansion of shadow economy. To reduce the scope of shadow economy or at least to prevent it from expanding, a thorough analysis the factors and causes of shadow economy is necessary followed by the implementation of the remedial measures - improvement of tax laws, reduction of trade restrictions and bureaucratic obstacles to enter the market, increase of the effectiveness of tax administration with a prior assessment of the conditions of economic development. In order to assess the scope and structure of shadow economy, a tax gap can be itemized by types of taxes, groups of economic entities, shadow economy phenomena, etc. Since the tax base of a certain tax is different, it is proposed to classify shadow economic phenomena first of all by groups of economic entities emphasizing: - The activity undertaken by natural persons in contradiction to the legal acts, - Breaches of law made by profit-based legal persons against the state system of finance and tax. Although both a legal person and a natural person (as a hired employee) are involved in the act of breach, the principal "executor" of the breach of the law will be a legal person, because such a breach is committed only following the instruction of the head of the entity (irrespective of who, a head or an employee of the entity, proposed to engage in the activity of shadow economy), - Breaches of the law made by non-profit legal entities (different organizations, religious communities, associations, etc). The second level of classification of shadow economy phenomena includes the activity of the groups of economic entities mentioned before seeking to evade taxes and/or to illegally appropriate part of taxes through inclusion of declaration of fictitious transactions in official accounting. The third structural level reveals what taxes and payments do not get to the national consolidated budget due to the presence of shadow economy phenomena specified on the second level. The author introduces Lithuanian's shadow economy phenomena classification, while structuring the identified shadow economy phenomena in tax administration practice as well as tax evasion and tax avoidance techniques. The presented classification creates possibilities to evaluate "contribution" of a certain economic phenomenon to the amount of a tax gap. Besides, such a classification may be useful when preparing the system of monitoring these phenomena