Looking for appropriate forms of intergovernmental transfers for municipalities in transition economies

Intergovernmental transfers can be either conditional or unconditional with regard to the autonomy of local governments in spending such financial means. Although fiscal decentralisation has recently been quite pronounced in Eastern European transition countries, the dominance of a purpose-and project-oriented, down-flow transfer system is apparent. In adopting abundant matching grants, the central government in these countries will further try to efficiently lead the provision of local public goods and services, which could, however, make the process of carrying-out legally assigned public activities by municipalities less 'self-governing'. On the other hand, the west German municipal resource allocation system ("Kommunalausgleichsystem") was implemented also in the eastern part of the country after unification, which primarily provides unconditional transfers for local governments. Furthermore, in the case of adopting the so-called principle of parallel development of fiscal capacity between the state and municipalities ('Gleichmäßigkeitsgrundsatz'), as Saxony already has done, the intergovernmental transfer ratio is no longer exogenously but endogenously determined, which better guarantees a just resource allocation between the two jurisdictions. Since the subsidiarity principle backed by sufficient own fiscal resources (from local taxes, in particular) and unconditional transfers appears to gradually gain significance in providing local utilities, this study shows the recent Saxon experience with unconditional transfers, which can be a helpful yardstick for the future political discussion aimed at improving the fiscal develolution system in many Easten European transition economies.

Trotz Erhöhung des Mehrwertsteuersatzes 2007 auf 19% ging die Ausfallquote auf 9% zurück und dürfte auch 2008 bei 9% liegen

Im Jahr 2005 konnte erstmals seit längerem ein gewisses Absinken der Mehrwertsteuerausfallquote festgestellt werden Dieser Rückgang hat sich 2006 und nach den vorliegenden Daten auch 2007 fortgesetzt. Für 2007 wurde auf der Basis der vorliegenden gesamtwirtschaftlichen Eckwerte eine Ausfallquote in Höhe von 9% berechnet, womit der Wert von 111/2% für das Jahr 2005 und 91/2 für 2006 nochmals unterschritten wurde. Von Interesse ist in diesem Zusammenhang insbesondere der Rückgang der Quote im Jahr 2007, der sich trotz der Anfang des Jahres 2007 vorgenommenen kräftigen Satzanhebung von 3 Prozentpunkten ergeben hat. Aufgrund dieser Satzanhebung hätte man eine deutliche Zunahme der Schwarzarbeit erwarten können und damit einen Anstieg der Ausfallquote. Für 2008 wird ebenfalls eine Ausfallquote von 9% erwartet.Umsatzsteuer, Deutschland

Looking for Appropriate Forms of Intergovernmental Transfers for Municipalities in Transition Economies

Intergovernmental transfers can be either conditional or unconditional with regard to the autonomy of local governments in spending such financial means. Although fiscal decentralisation has recently been quite pronounced in Eastern European transition countries, the dominance of a purpose- and project-oriented, down-flow transfer system is apparent. In the context of unification, the west German municipal resource allocation system was also implemented in the eastern part of the country, which provides primarily unconditional transfers for local governments. Furthermore, in the case of adopting the principle of parallel development of fiscal capacity between the state and municipalities, as Saxony already has done, the intergovernmental transfer ratio is no longer exogenously but endogenously determined, which better guarantees a just resource allocation between the two jurisdictions. Since the subsidiarity principle backed by sufficient own fiscal resources and unconditional transfers appears to gain significance in providing local utilities, this study shows the recent Saxon experience with the unconditional transfers, which can be considered for the future fiscal devolution process of Eastern European transition countries.intergovernmental transfers, fiscal decentralisation, local expenditure needs, municipal tax revenues, vertical fiscal equalisation, Saxony, Germany, European transition economies

Municipal Finance in Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Hungary: Institutional Framework and Recent Development

The recent process of political and economic transformation in eastern European countries has not only contributed to the decentralisation of political structure but also significantly enhanced the fiscal autonomy of municipalities in these countries. In this context many similar types of public activities have recently been assigned to local governments, and some taxes were also declared to be local taxes. To be sure, this type of fiscal decentralisation has caused some additional problems, particularly for safeguarding the quality of publicly provided goods and services and for co-ordinating intergovernmental fiscal transfers between the central and local governments. For instance, some criticise that many small-sized municipalities in the transition economies have suffered from financial bottleneck and have not been able to receive sufficient financial support from the central government. However, such a fiscal devolution trend appears to continue. This study primarily deals with issues surrounding the impact of national fiscal policy and the regulatory framework on local governments expenditure behaviour and their ability to mobilise necessary revenues under the particular consideration of the institutional and administrative co-operation with the central government and of the less well-developed financial market in Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Hungary.Fiscal decentralisation, local expenditures and taxes, shared taxes, intergovernmental transfers, municipal borrowings, Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary

Lessons of the 1999 Abolition of Intra-EU Duty Free Sales for Eastern European EU Candidates

At the end of June 1999 the intra-EU duty free shopping was abolished among the fifteen member nations. The opponents of this resolution argued that such a tax-free sales sector created jobs EU-wide and hardly reduced the value added and excise tax revenue of individual countries. In their opinion, duty free trade not only contributed to the reduction of travel fare within the EU but could also be characterised as a supplement to the normal retail trade for some products. Such ‘old’ ideas are increasingly popular in some Eastern European EU candidates where they are preparing for the introduction of the Single Market and EU membership in the near future. This study primarily shows that the arguments mentioned above were neither significant enough nor conclusive to maintain the intra-EU duty free shopping. Furthermore, the abolition of such tax free sales was approved in the EU in order to ensure the allocation efficiency of the VAT and excise tax system within a single market. Several arguments against the intra-EU tax free shop-ping examined in the study provide some helpful policy orientations for EU membership candidates.

The Ifo Institute’s Model for Reducing VAT Fraud: Payment First, Refund Later

Umsatzsteuer, Steuerstraftat, Steuersystem, Sales tax, Tax system

Leichtes Absinken der Mehrwertsteuerhinterziehungsquote im Jahr 2005

Seit im Jahr 2001 das Aufkommen der Steuern vom Umsatz überraschend eingebrochen ist und sich auch in den Folgejahren ohne einen auf den ersten Blick ersichtlichen Grund mehr oder weniger von der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung abgekoppelt hat, verfolgt das ifo Institut intensiv die Entwicklung der Mehrwertsteuerhinterziehungsquote. Diese ermittelt sich gemäß dem ifo-Ansatz im Wesentlichen durch einen Vergleich des tatsächlichen Aufkommens mit dem theoretischen Aufkommen. Die aktuellen ifo-Quantifizierungen ergeben, dass seit dem Jahr 2001 kein weiterer wesentlicher Anstieg der Quote stattfand, vielmehr verharrte sie recht konstant um den Wert von 10%. Für das Jahr 2005 ist nun zum ersten Mal seit Jahren eine leichte »Besserung« festzustellen. Der zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt prognostizierte Wert der Hinterziehungsquote sinkt auf 91/2% ab. Dies könnte darauf deuten, dass die vom Gesetzgeber in den letzten Jahren ergriffenen Maßnahmen nun doch mit einiger Zeitverzögerung in gewissem Maße wirken und somit wenigstens dazu beitragen, das Mehrwertsteueraufkommen zu stabilisieren bzw. die extreme Abkopplung von der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung zu beenden

Measurement of Value Added Tax Evasion in Selected EU Countries on the Basis of National Accounts Data

The size of tax evasion and fraud appears to be increasing steadily in the EU. To a certain extent, the completion of Single Market has further encouraged firms’ and households’ evasive behaviour in paying value added taxes in the EU Member States, whereas such efforts have traditionally been most pronounced in the field of corporate and personal income taxation. This study primarily deals with the quantification of the VAT evasion and fraud in the EU. On the basis of the national accounts data, it suggests a novel way of estimating the annual amount of hypothetical VAT revenues for the individual EU countries. The relation between the calculated hypothetical and the (current) collected revenues in a fiscal year largely determines the extent of VAT evasion and fraud of a country, when the time-lag problem between the creation of tax liability and the VAT collection in cash terms can be adjusted.