A reduction of the tax burden on corporate income in order to stimulate drivers of economic development has become the important issue of tax reform in many countries in recent decades. Tax competition forces national governments to take well-balanced solution on increasing outward and domestic investments as well as ensuring the fiscal capacity of the budget to cope with urgent socio-economic problems under enhancing fiscal risks. The purpose of the article is to assess the impact of tax reforms, addressing reducing the corporate income tax burden, on the fiscal space and investment processes in the EU countries and Ukraine, to establish directions of improvement of the tax system in Ukraine and other transition economies in order to spur the expansion of fiscal space. The research subject covers tax policy settings that shape fiscal space development. Research methodology. In accordance with the purpose of the article, the research methods are set as follows: abstract-logical; systemic analysis; analysis and synthesis; graphical method. Findings. By summing up theoretical ideas on the issue of feasibility of cutting corporate income tax, we have arrived at the conclusion that this measure has a significant impact on the improvement of tax competitiveness of the national economy. The gain from its application is confirmed by the best practices of many European countries. The results of the tax reform in Ukraine have proved that a traditional approach to the choice of tax issues – in contrast with developed economies – do not comply with theoretical provisions on increasing the competitiveness of the national economy and fostering investments. This is conditional on the specific tax effects in Ukraine due to the restriction of the key economic freedoms (investment, financial, property rights protection and judicial effectiveness) needed for successful entrepreneurship, as well as of a high rate of corruption, which increases the costs of business activity. Such effects include, in particular, a drop of tax revenues in the short and long term while reducing the level of corporate income taxation; a high level of tax evasion, capital outflow instead of expanding investment in the national economy. It is argued that the emphasis while carrying out tax reforms and expanding fiscal space in transition economies considering the specific effects of changing corporate income tax provisions, should be made on ensuring the long-term sustainability of public finances through measures of budget adjustments aimed at avoidance shifting the existing fiscal problems on future generations; harmonization of national tax legislation with the EU regulations and prevention of tax evasion; increasing the financial capacity of enterprises by introducing targeted innovation tax incentives, which will gain higher competitiveness of the country in the world markets and as a result facilitate the growth of the country’s future revenue receipts.

For many countries, the competitiveness of the tax system is a complex issue, as it not only reduces the tax burden on corporate income, whileensuring the intensification of economic development, but also leads to risks of lower tax revenues and loss of public financesustainability. Tax competition requires finding a compromise between ensuring investments and expanding fiscal space to deal withurgent socio-economic challenges in the face of new global challenges. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of the efficiency of tax reforms in terms of their impact onreducing the tax burden on business and increasing the competitiveness of tax systemsin the EU and Ukraine. Despite the success of such reforms in the EU, it was found that Ukrainian reforms have not been quite as efficient in achieving the appropriate level of investments and creating conditions for reducing the shadow economy. It is determined that tax reforms in Ukraine were carried out without considering specific effects of changes in corporate income taxation conditions, in particular, the impact of lower tax rates on tax revenues in the medium and long term, intensification of innovation and investment activities, investment dynamics abroad, etc. It is proved that the priority of increasing the international tax competitiveness of Ukraine should not consist intax ratesdecreasing and eliminationof tax restrictions on the formation of the corporate income tax base, but in the improvement of depreciation policy in terms of accelerating reimbursement of fixed assets and intangible assets, stimulating capital investment in the renewal of production on an innovative basis. It is substantiated that the development of the tax system of Ukraine (as well asother countries with small, open economy and with high level of corruption and shadow economy) should take place within the framework of a holistic concept of sustainable development, taking into account the possible consequences of budget decisions for both current and long-term budgets that will apply to future generations.

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Essential components of D. Trump’s tax reform and its impact on the income distribution and economic growth in U.S. are investigated. The analysis covers innovations in the system of income taxation of citizens (tax rate on income of physical persons, change in the composition of itemized and standard deductions from the taxable income, the alternative minimum income tax, limitations on the inheritance tax, and change in the mode of taxation of pass-through income). The essence of the trickle-down economic theory is explicated, with emphasizing its central role in tax policy development in the USA, which caused occurrence of common features specific to tax reforms over the last 40 years. The considerable attention is paid in this context to the experience of tax reform introduced by R. Reagan (1986); its comparative analysis with the tax reform of D. Trump shows that with respect to income taxation both are intended to provide incentives to business and reduce tax burden on the high income population strata. However, assessment of Reagan’s tax reform consequences shows that concentration of capital at the hands of businesses and high income population strata not only failed to increase employment and income, but aggravated the social and economic problems in the country, caused by revenue reduction in the American budget, the growing public debt and the enhanced social inequality in the American society. This gave experts grounds to expect an occurrence of the analogous scenario in the result of D. Trump’s tax reform. The article gives a series of short-term and medium-term projected estimates of international experts for budget losses and change in the structure of the population (household) income in US. Innovations in the system of income taxation of U.S. citizens are investigated by the results of analysis of legal norms concerning changes in the scale of tax rates and in the system of deductions from the taxable income. A number of critical comments are given about the income tax policy, based on summing up strong and weak points of the trickle-down economic theory. The most essential of them is that the policy granting more beneficial tax preferences to the well-off population strata, with their negative effects for the vertical justice of the tax burden distribution, contradicts to the ability-to-pay tax principle. Recommendations on potential testing of selected innovations on line of the taxation reform in Ukraine are given using results of the analysis.

The article is devoted to assessing the international competitiveness of the corporate profit tax system based on the approach of the US Tax Foundation, which develops International Tax Competitiveness Index of the corporate profit tax (ICI) and takes into account the level of profit tax rates, cost recovery, tax incentives and complexity of tax law. According to the analysis of the international ranking of OECD countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary had the highest ICIs in 2019-2020. The main factors that have had a positive effect on their competitiveness are the low top marginal income tax rate, unlimited loss carryback and carryforward, no restrictions on the list of assets subject to depreciation, as well as the use of accelerated depreciation, which allows companies to compensate for a larger share of the initial value of assets, LIFO inventory or at least inventory by the weighted average cost method, no Patent Box; no tax credit for R&D, and low corporate profit tax complexity. The calculation of the ICI for Ukraine, based on the approbation of the methodological approach of the Tax Foundation, found that in 2019-2020 Ukraine with a total score of 55.07 took 24th place out of 35 OECD countries. The author characterizes the main components of Ukrainian corporate profit taxation in terms of their impact on international competitiveness; in addition, ways to increase ICI are substantiated.