Municipal Tax Autonomy and Tax Mimicking in Czech Municipalities

Abstract

Property tax autonomy of the Czech municipalities is quite narrow and to great extent unused. Perceived political costs of its usage are high and only 8% of municipalities utilized the possibility to increase the tax rates through so called local coefficient.
 Using the binary logit model and a full sample and two subsamples of Czech municipalities in 2014 the existence of tax mimicking is confirmed regardless the subsample of municipalities considered or the definition of neighbors applied. The likelihood to increase the local coefficient is to some extent influenced by the composition of the municipal council and local demographic, geographic and fiscal situation. However, the overall capacity of the model to indicate municipalities which apply local coefficient is low and suggests that there are many other or different situations or factors which result in application of local coefficient.