The article presents a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of the modern budget systems of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. There are common and distinctive approaches of both states to the concept of the institution of the budget system and its structural elements. The budget systems of Russia and China are complex, multi-level collection of budgets of different types and levels, which are based on the peculiarities of the state structure of a particular country. At the same time, the budget legislations of both jurisdictions presuppose the formation of budget systems on the basis of the principle of unity of each of them and exclude the decentralized public funds from budget systems.