Critical Analysis of the Significance of Tax Incentives for the Cultural Industry in the Pre-digital Era and in the Context of Digitalization

Abstract

The article is devoted to the assessment of historical experience, modern solutions and prospects for the use of tax instruments to influence the cultural industry as a creative component of national economic systems, as well as the world economy. The purpose of the article is to conduct a critical analysis of the significance of fiscal measures to promote the development of culture both at the pre-digital stage of the formation of the system of world economic relations, and in the modern digital world. The article verifies two hypotheses: (H1) the postulate about the need for tax support for culture in order to obtain noticeable material and intangible results of the cultural industry in the context of the transition to a digital economy; (H2) the assumption that tax incentives stimulate research and development activities in the cultural industry. The authors reveal the consistency and continuity of the use of appropriate methods throughout the history of the development of human civilization in civilizations and states of different degrees and levels of their economic and institutional development. It is concluded that from the time of the emergence of ancient classical states to the present, the tools of tax policy necessarily include mechanisms of tax benefits in the cultural industry. At the same time, the fiscal function of taxes in the sphere of culture is insignificant in terms of its economic consequences; the highest priority here is given to tax incentive measures, which include, first and foremost, corresponding tax benefits. The importance of tax incentives as leading instruments in this context is empirically substantiated by the example of China. In the modern digital world, the cultural industry is under the influence of regulatory tax measures that are transforming under new conditions, which include both innovative taxes (a tax on digital services) and new forms of fiscal interaction (interstate cooperation that has spread to the field of cultural interaction in the field of activities of transnational corporations in the digital sector).