Розглянуто вплив децентралізаці влади на управління системою фінансів місцевого самоврядування в Україні. Узагальнено та проаналізовано законодавчі акти в контексті децентралізації та визначено їх вплив фінансову систему країни. Проведено аналіз структури джерел надходжень місцевих бюджетів, їх динаміку. Встановлено збільшення державної підтримки місцевого та регіонального розвитку, зокрема значне зростання ресурсів Фонду регіонального розвитку, субвенцій на інфраструктуру та соціально-економічний розвиток об'єднаних територіальних громад (ОТГ). Запропоновано заходи для розв'язання комплексу проблем функціонування місцевих фінансів в умовах реформи децентралізації в найближчій перспективі, серед яких запровадження і розвиток на рівні центральної влади ефективного механізму моніторингу та ідентифікації проблем планування та виконання бюджету, підвищення рівня освіти керівництва громад, а також залучення громадськості до бюджетного процесу.
The budget revenues of cities in the last few years have not been constant and are largely dependent on a number of factors such as: uncertain trends in the local and world economy, uneven criteria for urban development and numerous perennial legislative changes. A lot of legal changes have been made in the Republic of Croatia relating to budget planning and defining the sources of financing of cities, moreover, the Personal Income Tax Act has been amended six times in the period from 2014 to 2019, and the Act on the Financing of Local and Regional Self-Government Units has been amended several times, with a new law on local taxes being introduced in 2018. The reasons for numerous legal changes are twofold and partially stem from the adjustment to the relief of the Croatian economy, and partially from the state's efforts to further relieve the tax burden on labour and income taxation. These changes reflected on, and significantly affected, the fiscal capacity of the revenues of large cities. Recommendations are aimed at greater fiscal autonomy of large cities and are aimed at further implementation of fiscal decentralization, especially in the area related to tax revenues.
Legal qualification of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and "private money" in general raises doubts. Although, economically speaking, these goods perform some of the functions of money, they are not considered as such under the Polish civil code. This led some authors to argue that the rules on performance (and breach) of monetary obligations would not be applicable to cryptocurrencies. However, such a conclusion could cause unacceptable results, e.g. allowing for circumvention of the mandatory rules on maximum interest for late payment. The author proposes a solution to this dilemma. Firstly, it is accepted that cryptocurrencies are not "money" in the meaning of the Polish Civil Code. Therefore, the rules governing performance of monetary obligations do not automatically apply to cryptocurrencies. Secondly, cryptocurrencies cannot also be subject to all rules governing non-monetary performance, as this would lead to results inconsistent with the legislative purpose underlying various provisions of law. To ensure effectiveness of such provisions, a hybrid approach should be adopted. In particular, where justified by its ratio legis, the respective provisions governing monetary obligations should be applied to cryptocurrencies mutatis mutandi.
The economic and civic development of local communities is based, first of all, on the local public finance system, which must meet certain conditions so that the management of the territorial administrative units and the functioning of the local authorities meet the standards of a quasi-society. This paper is topical as the issue of local public finances is at the center of the current political debate as all the member states of the Council of Europe are confronted with the issue of harmonizing two diverging trends, namely: controlling and reducing spending and giving as much as possible large autonomies of local communities. The main objective of the paper is to identify solutions to ensure a more balanced allocation of financial resources between different levels of administrative organization, taking into account the budgetary regulation that is imposed at all levels of public administration. The data processing provided by the Ministry of Public Finance and the Court of Accounts highlighted the degree of dependence of local budgets of communes, cities, municipalities and counties on the consolidated general budget in the context of a decentralized process that is desirable to be as efficient as possible.
Artykuł otwiera dyskusję nad wykorzystaniem sieci blockchain w systemie finansowym oraz nad jego współczesną ewolucją. Systematyzuje informacje związane z tematyką rejestrów rozproszonych w finansach. Celem artykułu jest zwrócenie uwagi na możliwą zmianę kierunku w rozliczeniach między instytucjami finansowymi. Autor wykorzystał do analizy dostępną literaturę, artykuły naukowe, źródła internetowe dotyczące zastosowania technologii blockchain w finansach. Autor ma nadzieję, że dyskusja nad tym tematem rozpocznie cykl artykułów i analiz dotyczących sieci blockchain w systemie finansowym, a z czasem możliwa będzie implementacja tej technologii na skalę międzynarodową.
The aim of this study is to focus on fiscal decentralization and regional financial autonomy in Slovakia. The public administration reform and fiscal decentralization process in Slovakia ought to increase the autonomy of the multi-level governance and to decrease its dependency on state budgeting and other transfers. We argue that regional territorial governance is greatly dependent on financial incentives from central state financing, which limits the expected effect of decentralization and regional fiscal autonomy. By collecting quantitative data on state transfers and revenues to regional governments we demonstrate the limits of spatial, financial and decision-making autonomy within particular regions. The selected time frame 2005-2016 reflects all stages, reforms and changes in the fiscal decentralization of the second level governance in Slovakia.
There isn´t general consensus concerning the tools for evaluating of decentralization and public administration reforms. Comparison of impacts and tools for the evaluation of decentralization process is complicated mainly by a different arrangement of public administration, researching only partial aspects of decentralization or lack of key data. The aim of this paper is to legitimize the innovative approach of evaluation of the decentralization reforms through an analysis of subnational units´ staff. This consideration is based on correlation which suggests that countries with a higher degree of autonomy of subnational units usually have a wider bureaucratic apparatus of self-governments. In this context we answer whether the evaluation of Czech decentralization is relevant through an analysis of self-governmental staff and under which methodological preconditions. We worked with fragmented statistical unique and unpublished primary data about the self-governmental staff obtained from registers of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance and the Czech Statistical Office.
In India, the urban local bodies do not have decentralization in various functions. Therefore, municipal corporations find various issues in functioning and revenue generation. It has resulted into either shortfall or low quality infrastructure services to people. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation is developed as modern municipal corporation. Municipal corporation invested financial resources in development for civic infrastructure. Therefore, population, industries, educational institutions, markets, transport and other facilities are expanding very fast. The ordinary least square regression results shows that the municipal corporation has positive co-relation with revenue receipts from LBT, property tax and town planning. The revenue expenditure is positively co-related with municipal estate, public health and hospitals, primary and secondary education. The engineering work for poor is negatively correlated with revenue expenditure. The capital receipts are positively co-related with fire brigade, auditorium, sports and cultural programs and security deposits and water supply. The capital expenditure is positively co-related to women and child welfare schemes, primary education, environment monitoring. It is negatively co-related with dumping grounds. The municipal corporation must raise funds from capital market through municipal bonds. More investment must be made in civic infrastructure. Similarly, corporation must spend more funds on poor, welfare of women and children. Municipal corporation must monitor and protect environment. It must give more priorities for processing of solid and e-waste, protect local culture, primary and secondary education, health care for all and technology in provision of civic services. It must develop human resource and create best place to live in metropolitan region.
The implementation of fiscal decentralization in Slovakia in 2005 should have improved the financing of lower levels of government in terms of fortifying their financial autonomy, bringing the local authorities closer to citizens, etc. Indeed, the immediate period after the implementation brought excellent results, maybe thanks to the persistence of the economic expansion. However, the optimistic prospects of municipal and regional authorities were destroyed by the arrival of the financial crisis. Certain alleviation came in the period of the economic recovery. In this paper the structure of municipal revenues in the period of 2000–2017 is analysed with an emphasis on a system change presented by fiscal decentralization. An increasing trend in the municipal total revenues per capita can be observed in the monitored period. Simultaneously, as expected, results show certain principal changes in their structure which are linked to the public finance reform. Additionally, they were later affected by the financial crisis. What is important is the increase of the municipal tax revenues after 2005 with disturbance of the trend during the financial crisis. The eligible increase of received grants in the period of 2000–2004 was followed by a slight decrease after 2005, but worsening of the economic conditions in the period of 2009–2013 again required its dramatic increase. Municipal non-tax revenues seem to be resistant to economic development in Slovakia.
FinTech and blockchain: directions of development of digital economy: The paper looks at the selected issues connected with the digital economy, namely innovations such as FinTech and blockchain, as a possible direction of its development. First, the author discusses FinTech, a technology that aims to compete with traditional methods of delivery of financial services. Next, he raises the question of blockchain that records and maintains transactions made in cryptocurrency in a peer-to-peer network. The relevant definitions, key areas, regulatory framework, benefits and challenges related to both innovations are also presented.
Title: Tax aspects of disposal of cryptocurrencies This thesis aims to answer the selected questions from the legal and, above all, the tax- law framework. Cryptocurrencies are a fairly young phenomenon, which is still developing. They are mainly used as an alternative to state-recognized currencies or a specific investment instrument. Because of the significant profits that transactions can bring with them, the issue of determining related tax obligations is important. The work is divided into 4 basic parts. The first part deals with the general definition of the cryptocurrencies and other relevant institutes. The second part deals with personal income tax and the third part deals with value added tax. The final fourth part deals with the issue of the future development of cryptocurrencies regulation. In the first part, focus is placed on the general definition of cryptocurrencies within the rule of law, with emphasis on comparison with selected traditional institutes of financial law. Attention is also paid to the specific features of cryptocurrencies that are relevant in terms of tax administration and related tax duties. Considerable attention is also paid to the criminal law consequences that might arise in the event of non-compliance with tax obligations. At the end of this section, the...
At the present stage in the context of the reforms in the tax administration system, the issues of tax control management and improvement of registration procedures are relevant. Tax revenues account for the largest share of other methods of centralizing budget resources. Therefore, increasing tax revenues is especially relevant for financing budgets, including local ones. The purpose of the paper is to study controversial issues of tax control in the field of taxpayer accounting in order to find opportunities to increase tax revenues, primarily by making it impossible to carry out unregistered economic activity. The object of the study is the process of taxpayer accounting. The main tasks are: 1) to emphasize the importance of accounting and registration procedures in ensuring sustainable budgetary revenues; 2) to determine the specific features of accounting for different categories of taxpayers and outline the basic requirements for its organization in the tax authorities; 3) to track the dynamics of the number of taxpayers; 4) to propose directions for the improvement of the accounting and registration work of the State Tax Service authorities. In the course of the study, the following methods were used: abstract-logical, analysis and synthesis, benchmarking and structural-functional analysis, statistical-economic and graphic methods. It is substantiated that it is essential to working through the procedures of taxpayer accounting in order to ensure effective control over the correctness of calculation completeness and timeliness of making tax payments. The mechanism of taxation of different categories of entities on a one contact principle and on general grounds is considered. The emphasis is placed on the lack of coherence of actions of the state registration and tax authorities at the stage of registration of the entities, insufficient scope of authority of the controlling bodies and the lack of a single complete database on taxpayers. The dynamics of the number of different taxpayer categories is highlighted, the necessity to improve the method of their accounting is explained; and the income from unregistered economic activity in Ukraine is calculated with the method of ‘population expenditures – retail trade’. Ways to improve tax control in order to ensure the completeness and timeliness of taxes and fees are proposed. The prospects for further research are related to the investigation into controversial issues of tax policy and activities of tax authorities, as well as the improvement of tax control for the effective use of its fiscal regulatory capacity.
Milan Rapajić, Milivoje Lapčević, Violeta Miladinović
Since the introduction of property taxation in Serbian legislation, the tax system has been the subject of reforms a number of times for the purpose of its harmonization it with European Union standards. Initial changes were almost unnoticiable, while the latest modifications in the law attracted considerable interest of the tax policy creators, financial experts, as well as the taxpayers themselves because they introduced a new method of determining the tax basis which has increased the overall tax liabilities at annual level. Bearing in mind that the property tax generates local revenue and that local governments are in constant need for additional resources, the methodology of determining the tax liability should be based on the principle of equity and equality in order to ensure an ultimately efficient tax collection. In this paper, the authors will attempt to analyze both positive and negative aspects of improving the property tax system through a number of years, as well as to propose some solutions for the future reform of this system. By means of fiscal decentralization, this revenue plays an important role in financing local expenditure, while its abundance directly secures a larger autonomy of local self-government units, making them less dependable on the funds coming from the state budget.
The reform of the public administration, which took place in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, aimed to reduce the dependence of the subjects of territorial self-government on the state. Despite changes in the local and regional funding system, this aim has not been met in full. The state contributes to municipalities not only to carry over the transferred competences, but also for their individual needs. The aim of the paper is to evaluate relations of state budget with the local self-government budgets in the condition of the Slovak Republic in the period 2001-2017. The basis for the analysis were cumulative data for municipalities in the Slovak Republic reported by the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic as part of the results of budget management of cities and municipalities. The analysis revealed the fact that in the comparison of 2001 and 2017, the volume of financial resources received by municipalities from the state budget in the form of special-purpose subsidies increased and they are primarily linked to the transferred competences of municipalities. Despite the fiscal decentralization, municipalities in the Slovak Republic depend on the state budget not only within the tax incomes but also for subsidies.
The ongoing processes of decentralization, which are present in many countries, cause a growing proportion of public funds to be collected and spent at the local government tier, which necessitates the use of fiscal rules not only at the state level. This issue may raise some controversy due to the specific character, autonomy and empowerment of local government and local communities. Therefore, the analysed subject is based on three questions: 1. Limited fiscal autonomy of local self-government and it's consequences 2. A real need for and the scope of the use of fiscal rules in local government finance, 3. The informal factors that directly determine the indebtedness in local governments in the light of literature and selected empirical research. We use a descriptive method supported by an analysis of financial data and a case study as it presents selected aspects of Polish experience in the subject matter. The results of the analysis seem to point to the necessity of the use of fiscal rules in local government finance, which paradoxically strengthens the processes of decentralization, democratization, technological advancement and globalization. Some primary results of our research indicate investment expenditure, own revenues, number of companies (level of GDP) and election cycle as important, significant factors (in statistical meaning) effecting the local deficit and debt. The conclusions list the advantages of the use of fiscal rules at the local government tier and large diversity of informal conditions across the whole country.
The aim of this article is to assess the importance of user charges as a source of revenues in state and local government and factors that impact a volume of these revenues. In order to carry out the research it has been assumed that volume of revenues from fees and user charges are dependent on fi scal decentralization, are positively affected public expenditure and depend on the wealth of a society. Two models-for the whole public sector and for state and local government has been designed. Using a panel of 26 selected OECD countries in period 1995-2016 it has been proved that decentralization is a signifi cant factor only in case of fees and user charges in whole public sector but not signifi cant in decentralized model. As expected fees and user charges positively depend on volume of expenditures in both models and additionally negatively depends on tax burden.
The purpose of the article is to study the theoretical foundations of decentralization, to analyze the indicators of the efficiency of cash management and to identify problems that have arisen as a result of the reform of intergovernmental fiscal relations. The article deals with problems of functioning of local budgets and regulation of intergovernmental fiscal relations under conditions of budget decentralization. The main directions of the budget policy introducing a new mechanism of budget regulation and equalization have been described. Suggestions for the functioning of local finance have been provided. The problems of intergovernmental financing have been identified and ways of their solution have been proposed. It has been noted that as a result of the decentralization process, the mechanism of the use of monetary resources has changed, therefore, an analysis of the efficiency of budget filling and rational use of budget funds is necessary to assess the actual state of affairs. The object of the study was the united territorial communities of Ukraine and their structure on subsidization in the conditions of modern reforms. On January 1, 2019, 876 OTGs were created in Ukraine as a result of the association of 4010 territorial communities (36.6% of all territorial communities), which covers 37.6% of the country’s territory. Elements of scientific novelty are developed criteria, which are isolated according to the results of the research: the basic grant should contribute to the fiscal capacity of local budgets; the amount of transfers must correspond to the financial security of the macroeconomic financial stability of the region and promote its economic growth; the system of intergovernmental transfers should stimulate local authorities to form their own revenues in local budgets; the transfer system should provide coverage of vertical and horizontal imbalances. It has been determined that the basis of intergovernmental relations should be the volume of transfer payments to certain territorial units, which should take into account such indicators as real incomes and the amount of substantiated expenditures. It has been concluded that the system of intergovernmental transfers should stimulate local authorities to form their own revenues in local budgets. Further research will be aimed at deepening the analysis of the impact of decentralization on the incomes and expenditures of territorial communities in the Transcarpathian region
Decentralized finance has evolved as a major contender for traditional banking systems over the last few years. Evolution in blockchain and cryptography technologies are the driving forces for decentralized finance’s growth. The emergence of Bitcoin in the finance system was a major driving force toward the tremendous growth of decentralized finance. However, with various platforms merging every day, the decentralized finance sector is still in its early, unorganized stages. The current decentralized finance market is chaotic. With a new “coin” being introduced almost every month, standardization is highly lacking in the system. DeFi already has several different applications available. For instance, one can purchase stable coins, or assets pegged to a national currency, on decentralized exchanges, move the assets to a lending platform that is also decentralized to earn interest, and then add the interest-earning instruments to a decentralized liquidity pool or an on-chain investment fund. DeFi enterprises frequently aim at decentralized decision-making, or governance, in everything from the user fees to the products they provide. A decentralized program may be started by one person or a small number of individuals, but as the project gathers traction, its leaders frequently try to step down and cede control to the user base. A decentralized autonomous organization that has its rules and regulations written into computer code and that may issue governance tokens, which allow its holders a voice in decisions rather than allowing the decision-making to a centralized government authority as in case of traditional finance, could represent this transition. While on one side, world governments are still trying to grasp and regulate the sector, on the other side, the technology’s reach has been very limited. Undoubtedly, the emergence of blockchain-based decentralized finance is massively influencing our current finance technology industry. In this chapter, we discuss the current growth in the FinTech industry and the blockchain-based decentralized finance sector. Furthermore, we discuss how decentralized finance can be used in the current FinTech industry.
Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu przybliżenie istoty bitcoin oraz jest próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie, jaką rolę elektroniczna moneta odegra na globalnym rynku finansowym w przyszłości. W pierwszej kolejności w artykule przedstawiono dwa sposoby definiowania bitcoin oraz mechanizm emisji tej monety i obrotu w Internecie. Na tej podstawie wyodrębniono zalety i wady elektronicznej monety w kolejności ich ważności. Następnie zaprezentowano dotychczasową genezę rynku bitcoin, co pozwoliło na zidentyfikowanie i uszeregowanie determinant jego rozwoju. Wśród nich za najistotniejsze uznano ograniczoną podaż bitcoin i rosnący nań popyt, pogłębianie się globalnego kryzysu zadłużeniowego, stopniowe wprowadzanie przejrzystych regulacji prawnych, utrzymanie wiarygodności dotyczącej emisji monet oraz rosnącą akceptację tej formy płatności przez użytkowników Internetu. Na koniec rozważań o bitcoin przedstawiono możliwe zastrzeżenia zgłaszane przez biernych obserwatorów rynku, które wciąż pozostają bez jednoznacznej odpowiedzi. W podsumowaniu przyjęto stanowisko pośrednie, nadające bitcoin status nowatorskiego wynalazku, który dzięki swojej hybrydowej naturze może być pierwszym krokiem do pieniądza przyszłości.
Since its independence the Republic of Croatia has commenced a thorough reconstruction of its taxation system according to the market economy taxation policy. Essential taxation reforms have brought the system closer to EU systems i.e. it has been being harmonized with taxation systems of developed European countries. The Republic of Croatia has adopted solutions that are used by the majority of European countries. Current tax system of the Republic of Croatia can be viewed through three fiscal levels, but this paper deals with decentralization and revenue, especially tax revenue of local and regional self-government units. The paper will present importance and a way of collecting revenue, especially tax revenue and satisfying public needs in terms of counties, cities and municipalities. The local and central characteristics of the certain types of taxes and the specialities thereof, as well as the applied functional differences are also scrutinized, and a widely accepted opinion of the taxpayers is explained. Taking these into account, the scientific contribution of this paper is that it provides a basis for further research on tax system development.
Dana Országhová, Radomíra Hornyák Gregáňová, Viera Papcunová
Changes in the socio-economic conditions of countries initiate modifications in the management of its economic and social processes, which are also followed by conversions in the public administration. At the same time, they are also looking for the concepts of rational organization and effective management of the public administration. The public administration of the Slovak Republic is created by local self-government and regional selfgovernment. Municipalities represent the local self-government bodies. The effective conditions of the municipalities are creating the effective setting of its financing. Until 2004 the financing of municipalities was determined annually by the state budget act and for the municipalities distributed from the state budget a share of the tax of personal income, which consisted of three taxes: tax of personal income, tax of the corporation income and road tax. In 2005 the fiscal decentralization took place in Slovakia as a part of the consolidation of public finances, resulting in a new way of financing municipalities. The basis of the new financing system of municipalities was to determine the tax of personal income as a single share tax, in particular, because the dynamics of the income of this tax was expected to grow even in the medium term. The objective of the paper is to evaluate changes and trends in the financial management of municipalities based on selected fiscal indicators within the period 1993 -2015.
The subject of research in this paper is the institute of public loan as an instrument for financing public needs of municipalities - cities and local selfgovernments. The paper will highlight the causes of the growing importance of the public debt instrument at the local level, as a phenomenon that follows the tendency of global affirmation of the idea of fiscal decentralization. It will also point out the elements of the legitimacy of rational use of public loans, as well as the nature, scope and consequences of different types of restrictions on local borrowing at global and domestic level.
Katalog współczesnych zagrożeń ekonomiczno-gospodarczych ewoluuje pod wpływem nowych zjawisk, jako skutek dynamicznego rozwoju technologii informacyjno--komunikacyjnych i poszerza się czyniąc go nieskończonym. Technologie wzbogaciły instrumenta-rium działań przestępczych i umożliwiły dokonywanie czynów zabronionych w cyberprzestrzeni. W kontekście zagrożeń postrzegane są wirtualne waluty. Artykuł poświęcono analizie zjawiska wirtu-alnych walut, by na tej podstawie sformułować przypuszczalne konsekwencje i najbardziej realne cele dla Polski, póki jest jeszcze czas, aby podjęte działania były skuteczne i zabezpieczały interesy państwa.