A controlling authority’s legal status determines its place in the mechanism of State power and provides it with the scope of powers implemented in the event where specific tax relations arise. Legal relations formed between the entities involved in such relations cause a transition from the static state to the dynamic state, and this consistently entails a change in the legal status of a controlling authority from the entity at law to the entity of legal relations.

The purpose of the article is: a) to make a consistent study of doctrinal approaches used to define the general concepts “legal status of a person”, “legal status of a public authority”, “legal status of a controlling authority as the entity at law”, “legal status of a controlling authority as the entity of legal relations”; b) to bring these concepts into correlation; c) to ascertain the possibility and expediency of applying such concepts as “administrative legal status of a controlling authority”, “public legal status of a controlling authority”; d) to delineate the categories “legal status of a controlling authority” and “legal status of officials (officers) of a controlling authority”.

 Within its framework, the study has established that only the unity of the formal (power-based nature of activity) and the substantive (relations at tax law) criteria determines the essence inherent in the concept “legal status of a controlling authority”. Bearing this in mind, it is possible but inexpedient to use the concept “administrative legal status of a controlling authority” in the scientific context. Given that one of the elements of controlling authority’s legal status – responsibility – combines the components of public and private law, it is also possible but inexpedient to apply the concept “public legal status of a controlling authority”. Therefore, it is both possible and expedient to mark out only two concepts: legal status of a controlling authority as the entity at law and legal status of a controlling authority as the entity of legal relations.