Key fields of digitalization of tax administration in relation to entities of the agricultural business

Aim. The work aimed to determine priority fields of digitalization of tax administration in relation to entities of the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation (RF), including an analysis of problems of the current functioning of the unified agricultural tax (UAT) mechanism, and to develop proposals for the implementation of digital solutions aimed at increasing transparency, automating interaction with tax authorities, and reducing the administrative load on agricultural producers.
Objectives. The work seeks to analyze the current level of digitalization of tax administration in the agro-industrial complex; to identify organizational, infrastructural and legal barriers to the implementation of digital technologies in the tax policy of the unified agricultural tax; to study the current digital tools used by the Federal Tax Service (FTS of Russia), and assess their applicability to agricultural entities; to develop models of digital administration of the unified agricultural tax taking into account interdepartmental integration and the level of digital maturity of agricultural organizations; to propose a set of measures for the implementation of digital services, mobile applications and training platforms for agricultural workers; to define digital benchmarks for the transformation of tax administration in the industry.
Methods. The study employed systemic and comparative legal approaches which enabled to identify structural relationships between tax regulation entities and digital platforms; as well as an economic and statistical analysis of official reporting data from the Federal Tax Service of Russia, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, and the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia for 2019–2024 was performed. The project method was used to create a digital administration model for the unified agricultural tax, including a description of the platform functional architecture and an assessment of the expected results. The graphical method is used to visualize the integration links between participants in tax interactions, as well as to compile a comparative table of the current and target state of digital transformation in the industry.
Results. It was established that the level of digitalization of tax administration in agriculture remains fragmentary, namely less than 40% of entities use electronic document management; and integration with the information systems of tax authorities is difficult due to the lack of standardized solutions and weak digital infrastructure in a number of regions. Key barriers were identified. These include insufficient digital literacy of taxpayers, low level of Internet access, and poor adaptation of existing digital platforms to the specifics of the unified agricultural tax. A digital administration model was developed, including the creation of a single digital platform for the unified agricultural tax, the implementation of a mobile application, integration with accounting cloud systems, as well as interaction with banks and cadastral authorities. Measures were proposed for the phased implementation of digital solutions with an assessment of their effect by key indicators, namely reporting processing times, the share of digital document flow, and the degree of automation of calculations. The results are systematized in tabular and graphical ways, indicating the promising architecture of tax interaction.
Conclusions. The theoretical and regulatory aspects of digitalization of tax administration in the agricultural sector were analyzed with an emphasis on the unified agricultural tax. A need was identified to adapt the system of interaction between tax authorities and agricultural producers to industry specifics, eliminate digital inequality, and optimize information exchange. The scientific novelty consists in the development of a model for the unified agricultural tax digitalization, which includes information exchange, automation of tax calculations, and digital services. Measures for regulation, training, information security, and monitoring with cost assessment were proposed. The results confirmed the model efficiency for successful digitalization of tax administration in the field of agricultural business. The proposed measures can be used in programs for digitalization of tax administration and support of the agro-industrial complex.

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