FORMAL AND INFORMAL FISCAL IMPERATIVES OF THE FORMATION AND USE OF THE STATE'S FINANCIAL RESOURCES IN THE CONTEXT OF REDUCING INEQUALITY

Abstract

The article substantiates the essence and provides a typology of fiscal imperatives of the formation and use of the state's financial resources through the prism of reducing income and wealth inequality in society. It is proved that the classical postulates of the liberal market economy do not answer the question of overcoming economic inequality, while the dominance of economic motives in human behaviour, driven by the crisis of values, contradicts the paradigm of sustainable development and deepens the gap between the normative and the actual state of distribution. The philosophical and ethical foundations of imperativeness are revealed on the basis of deontology, I. Kant's categorical imperative, H. Jonas's temporal imperative and the "golden rule" of morality, as well as their fiscal interpretation regarding the behaviour of taxpayers and the formation of the state fiscal policy. The approaches to the interpretation of the concept of "imperative" available in the scientific literature are systematised in the general scientific, philosophical, environmental, legal, managerial and economic contexts, and the author's understanding of fiscal imperatives of reducing inequality in the broad and specified meanings is proposed. The basic fiscal imperative is distinguished – ensuring the income of the population not lower than the actual subsistence minimum, the practical implementation of which involves adjusting the legally established subsistence minimum to the actual level and aligning the minimum wage and social transfers with it. On the basis of the theory of institutionalism, the imperatives are divided into formal ones, fixed in the regulatory and legal framework of the state and in international law, and informal ones, based on the moral and ethical norms of social behaviour; according to the criterion of goal achievement, formal imperatives are divided into constructive and destructive. A typology of fiscal imperatives by the stages of formation and use of the state's financial resources is proposed, covering progressive income taxation, differentiated consumption tax rates, taxation of inheritance and luxury property, rent payments, state guarantees of minimum social security, the division of expenditures in favour of local budgets, the optimisation of the functional distribution of budget expenditures and the prevention of corruption. It is substantiated that the formed imperatives are not exhaustive and may be adjusted according to the socio-economic situation, yet they serve as guidelines for the state, taxpayers and citizens in reducing the asymmetries of income and wealth distribution.