Pecularities of Lithuanian tax amnesty: efficiency issues

Purpose – to analyze the general concept of tax amnesty and compare it with the model of tax amnesty held in Lithuania. Tax amnesty programs have a long history and remain relevant these days. In recent years, most countries have seen a significant increase in economic and financial crimes. As a result, enormous amounts of illegally obtained funds are included in the financial and economic circulation, and the scale of the shadow economy is expanding. At the same time, there has been a steady trend towards tax evasion by various categories of taxpayers. In these conditions, the legislative and executive bodies are expanding and strengthening the legal framework for effectively combating crimes in the field of finance, improving the activities of tax agencies to prevent, identify and suppress these offenses and crimes. Is a tax amnesty relevant and necessary in such circumstances? Although governments around the world have used tax amnesties as a part of their fiscal program, the experience of individual governments in the field of tax amnesties has been quite unique in terms of their validity, frequency, and objectives pursued. Thus, this article evaluates the content of the applied amnesty and different efficiency parameters. The article seeks to examine the factors influencing the government decision in the area of tax amnesty as well as the origins, objectives, and outcomes of the program. The aim is to discuss the effectiveness of such a measure and its impact on amnesty participants and the economic situation in general. Design/methodology/approach – linguistic, systematic analysis, comparative method of legal research used. These methods were used to systematically evaluate the legal changes, compare them with legal regulations of other states. Finding – Insufficient attention is paid to the discussions on the legal regulation of tax relations. It is often limited to notifications of legislative decisions that have already been taken and will soon need to be implemented. Little attention is paid to the implementation of measures and the evaluation of effectiveness. Thus, with the change of the Law on Tax Administration of the Republic of Lithuania and the possibility for taxpayers to correct violations of the tax procedure, tax law specialists have encountered significant problems of legal uncertainty. One of the most clearly identifiable is the problem of the lack of a clear goal and the absence of criteria for assessing the effectiveness of measures. Research limitations/implications – This article does not cover the financial side of the tax amnesty analysis, which could be the subject of a separate investigation due to its scope and the specifics of the valuation. The need for a tax amnesty and general efficiency criteria will be assessed. The article is limited to the theoretical assessment of tax amnesty as an expression of tax policy, tax administration and legal relations. Practical implications –Justification of the universality and complexity in tax amnesty process. An overview of the main advantages and disadvantages in the chosen Lithuanian amnesty model. Evaluation of the future application perspectives.