Central and Local Fiscal Jurisdiction in Romania: A Taxonomy of Property Taxation

Abstract

The study ensures an inventory of Romanian taxation forms under the criteria of taxable object property. It uses a scale based on the components of property, usus, fructus and abusus, to catalogue all taxation forms regulated under the Romanian Fiscal Code. A secondary criterion extracted from legal provisions is the subject of taxation. Furtherly, the study corelates this inventory with the destination of the revenue, hence the financed budget. It shows that some taxes have a more holistic approach on property as part of an activity flow, while others target property directly. To assess these contents, the study implies answering a quartet of questions: “who?”, “what for?”, “what from?”, “how much?”. The explicit responses allow us to identify the subject of the tax; the chargeable act or fact; the taxable base and rate of each tax. This common base is further transferred in a budgetary key and measured as to the contributory force to central and local budgets. The normative budget factor of distributing revenues from central to local authorities is also illustrated.