The article is focused on defining the essence and content of legal settlement and tax amnesty. The main features and areas of applying legal settlement in various fields of law have been studied. The legal principles of reaching a legal settlement in civil, labor, tax and criminal procedural law have been studied. The author has suggested own definition of a legal settlement. The content of a legal settlement has been defined as the achievement of mutual concessions of the parties within the legal norms. The main features, procedure and grounds for tax amnesty have been determined. The author has provided specific measures that can be taken under the tax amnesty. The procedure for legalization of funds and release of the perpetrator of violations of tax legislation from legal liability under the tax amnesty has been highlighted. The author has presented conclusions of researchers who studied the practice of tax amnesty in different countries. The author has suggested own definition of tax amnesty.