The article is devoted to the problematic issues of tax incentives for Russian companies. The main prerequisite of the research is that the domestic practice of tax incentives does not meet the interests of the state, since it is in clear contradiction with the declared principles of economic development. The provided tax privileges should promote the investment activity of business. However, tax incentives are often offered to those enterprises that are not able to use them effectively. Justification of tax benefits requires identifying enterprise's investment activity factors, the level of which is largely determined by the corporate life cycle stage and industry specificity. Hypotheses about the importance of corporate age and economic activity, formulated for the purposes of this study, have been empirically confirmed. It was proved that the investment activity of Russian enterprises demonstrated different dynamics in the conditions of the economic crisis. In the manufacturing industry, in particular, most enterprises increased the volume of fixed assets, while in the spheres of petroleum products, dairy products, chemical products, communications on the basis of wire technologies, there was a decline in investment activity. The change in investment activity in the period under study was due to various factors for both enterprises of different industries and enterprises of the same industry characterized by different corporate ages. The results obtained let us conclude that a unified approach to tax incentives for enterprises' investment activity cannot be justified. In the opinion of the authors, "targeted" tools of tax incentives are more efficient.