Improvement of methods for estimation of tax barden in a group of companies

The popularity of a complex business structure as a form of economic activity is currently increasing. It is caused by the fact that this form is considered to be the most convenient way to optimize costs and, furthermore, to diversify an investment portfolio due to the formation of financial and industrial groups. Due to high popularity of different forms of business associations the assessment of economic activity efficiency and, in particular the issues of tax burden assessment in a group of companies, are becoming more relevant and acute. However, fundamental features of tax burden assessment in a group of companies have not been considered enough in scientific environment. Moreover, an appropriate technique has not been suggested by Russian legislation system. In terms of a comparative analysis of the existing methods having been used to assess the tax burden on business entities the authors suggest an original method to assess this phenomenon in a group of companies. The method considers a set of principal features: differences in an accounting policy of this type of companies, operation in different tax jurisdictions, and the use of different tax regimes. The authors’ method includes three stages. The first one suggests the calculation of an integral index of tax (or total fiscal) load. A set of particular indices of tax burden is calculated at the second stage. Also the factor analysis of the impact of a tax payment structure in a group, of tax remissions, tax jurisdictions and of other factors on the above-considered particular indices is conducted there. At the third stage if it is necessary to assess the operation efficiency within the terms of a group of companies, these indices are calculated for each company individually and are compared with those calculated for the whole group.