Belousova M. V., Tchabanenko J. M., Polyviana O. V.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University

TAXATION AS AN ELEMENT OF ECONOMIC CULTURE OF SOCIETY

The need in tax collection appeared in the ancient times since the beginning of some sort of special non-production agency, which included protection of society interests.

In terms of one's fighting for saving their accumulated material resources and saving the authority over the others, creation of this special agency was necessary. Since this agency didn't produce anything, i.e. it had no sources for self support, the community, which interests the agency was created in, tried to find means and sources for supporting this agency.

In different times these sources depended on the activities of the community itself, on historical processes that took place in it. During peaceful times this agency was supported by parts of material resources of people to provide effective work of this government agency. During and after war times the main source of the agency were stolen resources of defeated people.

Besides, the defeated people were turned into slaves, whose exploitation provided huge benefits to their owners. Slave-trade brought huge benefits both for the owners and for the slave-owning government.

The important part in financial and material support of the government was played by growing trade inside the community as well as between other peoples.

It's worth saying that for renewing the treasury different forms of extracting funds were used by the rulers. Those forms varied from taking high tributes to kidnapping governors of other nations just to blackmail them. But the most stable source for refilling the treasury was tribute.

Thus the arising of taxation as the main form of supporting the community life was tended by several factors:

- deepening division of labor between members of society influenced by increasing production forces;

- functional partition of members in primitive society into owners and management groups;

- partition of society into poor and rich people;

- centralization of the authority, i.e. joining up all the major owners for protection of their wealth and for keeping the power over poor part of the society;

- creation of special agency which could protect interests of the society.

These factors show us that creation of taxation is connected with the development of community and state was based on productive relations. And the domination of economic interests was the driving force of these relations.