Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Israel Ukraine Forum of Science and Innovation‖ (April 27-29, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Tel Aviv, Israel, 2026. - 262 p.

11 revise the basic categories that characterize the essence of financial science, in particular its terminology, to better understand terms and concepts with European and international practice. The reason is that there is still a certain inconsistency between financial science in Ukraine and practice regarding the use of financial terminology. After all, the ambiguity of the interpretation of some financial terms levels the pragmatics of their use, application and disclosure of certain financial phenomena and processes. This issue has become especially relevant during the implementation of budget reform/decentralization since 2015, and the dynamic development of local self-government. In this situation, there is an urgent need to revise financial terminology, since local budget finances or funds of a united territorial community do not fully relate to state finances, although there is a close relationship between them. We understand that in order to change the terminology, it is necessary to justify the need for such actions. From our research, it follows that the emergence of the term "state finances" and "public finances" are closely interconnected through the state as a social institution, primarily through its performance of functions to meet the needs of the population. A significant number of scholars identify the concept of "public finances" by the criterion of the form of ownership, for example, in the person of the state or local governments. However, the approaches to formulating the essence of the concept of "public finances" are different among different researchers, as are their intended purpose, openness of functioning, disclosure of the essence through the definition of constituent elements. A significant number of scholars believe that an important characteristic of public finances is the satisfaction of the social (public) needs of the population, focusing on the close relationship with the performance of state functions and the allocation of appropriate funds for these purposes. It is worth noting that the dominant definition of public finances, in addition to meeting public needs, is independence and autonomy, as well as transparent formation and passage of all stages of the budget process, including the formation of revenues and directions of direction and use of budget expenditures. Based on this