Objective: Analysis of the problems of small businesses functioning in the context of the economic crisis aggravated by the pandemic, most particularly economic relations between the state and a tax-payer in the process of taxation of small businesses. Methods: Special tax treatments as one of the tax incentives for small businesses are used, legislative and regulatory acts of state authorities, as well as federal laws. Results: The authors have concluded that the most important challenge the Russian economy is currently facing is to ensure the survival of small businesses, including by ex-panding rather than narrowing the scope of application of special tax treatments. Practical im-portance: The novelty of the research lies in the critical approach to the stance of the state in rela-tion to special tax treatments, which are aimed at creating favorable economic and tax conditions for business deve¬lopment. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to provide real support to small businesses in the context of the economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic.

The article gives an excursion into the history of the general approach to the formation of ratings. The fact of the growing importance of rating companies in the financial and non-financial sectors of the economy, as a tool for assessing the achievements of organizations, is noted. The general structure of the stages of preparing a company for rating in the field of achieving sustainable development goals with an emphasis on non-financial ratings, taking into account ESG factors, is considered. The main rating companies were named and a comparison of a number of parameters of the Methodologies and Assessment Methods proposed by them was carried out. The main directions of the rating assessment are formulated, as well as the content of sections, groups, subgroups, target criteria, indicators. The performed analysis allows, on the one hand, to group, and, on the other hand, to detail the stages of preparation for rating, mainly for organizations of the higher education system. Particular attention is paid to the ESG section of block G- “Corporate governance”. Within this section, the main requirements for the formation of criteria and indicators of the ESG rating in the field of relations with stakeholders and non-financial reporting on sustainable development are deciphered. The composition of the information disclosed by universities in the sustainability report has been systematized. A general conclusion is made about the need for a systematic approach to the preparation, implementation and monitoring of a strategy and step-by-step actions developed by an individually developed organization in the direction of progressive movement towards the achievement of sustainable development goals with a focus on ESG. It is noted that the directions and criteria for rating, in particular, depend on the choice of a corporate governance model.

Purpose: To consider the possibility of creating a subsystem of internal tax control aimed at providing accounting (financial) reporting reliability as well as at observance of legislation requirements, regulating conduct of an accounting. Methods: The theoretical basis of the study was an analytical review of scientific publications of professionals specialized in tax risk matters as well as it was federal laws and regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation in the field of taxation. We can underline from the considered models the major components of internal control system (ICS): risk assessment, control means, control environment, information and communication, monitoring. Results: It’s pointed that the most important element of internal control system is, namely, the process of risk clarifying and analysis as an effective mean of business protection and, incidentally, the need in author’s development of tax risk matrices on the example of value added tax and corporate income tax as an integral part of the internal tax control subsystem model. Practical importance: The possibility for creating an effective subsystem of internal tax control, taking into account enterprise individual features, their specifics and activity scale.

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