Value Added Tax and Contract Price: Legal Issues of Mutual Influence

The paper investigates the legal issues of the relationship and mutual influence of value added tax imposed on the buyer and the contract price. The author substantiates the position that the legal science, the understanding of the nature of value added tax as a legal withdrawal of a part of the added value to the budget, Clause 1, Article 168 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and Article 424 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation indicate that it is impossible to directly (without the agreement of the wills of the parties to the contract and contrary to the will of the buyer) increase in the contract price by the amount of value added tax and its collection from the buyer in case of amendments to the laws on taxes and fees made during the term of this contract, which entail the imposition of value added tax on a previously (as of the date of the contract) non-taxable transaction. It is not intended to directly (without the agreement of the wills of both parties to the contract) amend the contract price and place the burden of paying value added tax on the buyer, where a transaction that was initially not subject to value added tax has become subject to taxation for external or internal reasons. At the same time, the contract price remains the same even in the opposite case, if the transaction initially subject to value added tax is exempted from it.