Taxes in the formation of financial resources territorial communities: Ukraine and the EU

Abstract

The issues of fiscal decentralization and the search for ways to increase the level of financial independence of territorial communities are extremely important for the socio-economic development of Ukraine. The main instrument by which territorial communities carry out their functions is the budget. Therefore, issues and problems that relate to the formation of the revenue side of local government budgets, the search and implementation of reserves for their filling, the expansion of the tax base is given a lot of attention in the scientific works of scientists from both foreign and domestic scientific schools. At the same time, the novelty of the problems associated with fiscal decentralization requires further research, in particular, substantiation of directions for increasing the role of taxes in the formation of financial resources of territorial communities. The objective of the study is to analyze the formation of local budget revenues in Ukraine at the expense of tax revenues and a comparative analysis of tax sources for the formation of financial resources of territorial communities in Ukraine and in individual EU countries. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the directions for increasing the role of taxes in ensuring the financial autonomy of territorial communities. During the research, general scientific and special methods were used: analysis and synthesis, the method of comparison, generalization, statistical, etc. The article analyzes the formation of incomes of local budgets in Ukraine at the expense of tax revenues. It has been proven that financial decentralization, tax and budget reforms have positive trends and contribute to the growth of revenues of local budgets and increasing their fiscal potential. However, local taxes have not become a regulatory instrument, but are secondary to government taxation. Therefore, the local taxation system in Ukraine requires further reform. The current system of local taxes and fees in the country requires further development, since it must provide sufficient volumes of own revenues of local budgets, as well as be an instrument of local socio-economic policy. The way to increase the volume of local taxes and fees should be the establishment of taxes that provide a sufficient volume of revenues, which in turn will create a reliable source of revenue for local budgets. Expanding the autonomy of local authorities will enable them to play an important role in the socio-economic development of communities and the country as a whole. Since local taxes and fees should form the basis of local budget revenues, it is necessary to expand the rights of local territorial communities to approve tax rates and fees, grant tax benefits, and also, taking into account the positive experience of EU countries, on diversifying tax revenues, in particular, through taxation of real estate. The results of this study can be applied in the process of reforming the local taxation system in order to ensure the financial independence of territorial communities.