The article raises topical issues of improving the tax policy of the state in applying the tools of tax subsidize. The aim of the article is to identify and justify the existing problems in the implementation of the regulatory function of taxes. The article presents a critical analysis of existing tax legislation methods of tax minimization and the results of law enforcement practice of the taxpayers in their use. So, the study analyzes the following tax instruments: the use of bonus depreciation and raising coefficients to amortization norms, “transfer of the loss for the future”, taxation of consolidated groups of taxpayers, the mechanism of distribution of profit for tax on profit of organizations which have subdivisions. The article analyzes innovations in the field of tax incentives in the framework of the project “Main directions of tax policy of the Russian Federation for 2016 and the planning period of 2017 and 2018”, namely: 1) providing rights to the subjects of the Russian Federation on establishment of tax privileges on profit of organizations for newly established enterprises (“Greenfield”); 2) liberalization of the tax regime for regional investment projects and priority development areas; 3) increase the minimum cost of depreciable property and revenue, to go from monthly to quarterly payment of advance payments under the profit tax of the organizations; etc. directions of improvement of tax doctrine to tax incentives in the framework of the decision of problems of increase of investment activity of economic entities, their orientation on legal tax optimization.