Izvorni znanstveni članak
An Analysis of Municipal and Town Taxes in Croatia
Mihaela Bronić
orcid.org/0000-0002-0863-2040
; Institut za javne financije, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The paper deals with local taxes in Croatia in the period 2002–2010 (vacation houses tax, tax on utilising public areas, consumption tax, company tax, surtax). The author proves that municipalities and towns do not levy enough local taxes. In 2010, local taxes as a percentage of total tax revenues of municipalities and towns in the Republic of Croatia were five times smaller than the OECD average. The author has confirmed the two initial hypotheses. The first is that some towns and municipalities do not make sufficient tax effort, which has been proved by the fact that there often are no local taxes, and if there are any, tax rates are frequently below average. The second one claims that the amount of local tax revenues is related to the development level of the town/municipality. Using Spearman’s correlation coefficients, the author has been able to prove that larger amounts of local taxes are usually collected in the more developed and tourism-oriented local units. The research of this issue is exceptionally important, particularly if one takes into consideration the debate on the current level of decentralisation in Croatia, possible increase of responsibility of local units, and the appropriate manner of financing of those increased responsibilities. It is concluded that the introduction and usage of local taxes are not sufficient. Local units’ awareness of the importance of increased usage of local taxes should be strengthened, while the central state ought to stimulate such practice by prescribing the minimal tax rates. It could be stipulated that if a local unit does not introduce at least minimal local tax rates, it shall not be granted state aid. However, the capacity to levy local tax is limited for some local units because of strong interconnectedness of local tax revenues and the level of development and tourist orientation of the town/municipality.
Ključne riječi
municipal/town tax; local self-government; local tax; local financing; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
130592
URI
Datum izdavanja:
18.6.2013.
Posjeta: 2.443 *