Theoretical comprehension and practical application issues relating to the exercise of tax audits and their recording have passed several stages in the course of the development and establishment of Ukraine’s tax system. Our State has always sought to create an efficient tax system which would have, inter alia, an efficient system to identify violations of tax legislation.

The relevance of the issues raised and the in-depth attention of practitioners to such an issue as the meaning of the tax audit act and its further impact on tax relations stems from the contradictory attitude to this document which has arisen in the course of law application over many years.

The article aims at clarifying the essence and content of the tax audit act and at analyzing its impact on further possible tax relations, with a view to developing a unified approach in law application and in the court practice of tax dispute consideration, as well as to working out proposals for further legislative consolidation of the appropriate regulation of this phenomenon.

The article highlights the essence and content of the tax audit act as a concept and analyzes three main aspects of relations under tax law in which the tax audit act will be involved after its execution.

The author turns the reader’s attention to the contradictory definition of the tax audit act in the relevant legislation and in the court practice, and makes a detailed analysis of the act as an official document of a tax authority certifying the fact of a conducted audit, and separately as a document which documents the revealed violations of tax legislation. Furthermore, the author emphasizes that the position held by judges of administrative jurisdiction that the act itself does not engender any legal consequences for a taxpayer and has no impact on taxpayer’s rights, obligations and legitimate interests is not unambiguously correct.

The first aspect is consideration of a case about administrative offense, in which respect the author focuses, in particular, on the current problem of delimitating the competence of administrative courts and general jurisdiction courts in the situations where there is the need to determine whether violations of tax legislation occurred. The second aspect is the role of analytical work of tax authorities and, in this regard, the indirect impact of the tax audit act on further legal relations of the audited entity – taxpayer. The third aspect is the tax audit act as the basis for commencement of a pre-trial investigation under article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The author arrives at the conclusion that each of the options comprises a certain inconsistency with the basic rules and other processes of legal relations development which stems from the tax audit act and, therefore, the issue of the appropriate role of the tax audit act is not adequately regulated so far; the author also suggests particular changes to be made to resolve the contradictions.