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Anthony Levitas
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The decentralization system impacts the change of the local tax regulation. Based on the Law No 34 of 2000 on local tax and retribution, local government may determine new kind of taxes besides what has established in this Law, but they must refer to the available criteria. Tax as one of the important local incomes to finance either the government operation or local development and to support the accountable, real, and extant decentralization . After the Law No 34 of 2000 has been replaced by the law No 28 of 2009 on local tax and retribution, local government is not allowed to pick up tax other than what the law has determined. The basis of the tax and the discretion is extended. To improve the tax accountability; this law stipulates that some parts of tax income should be allocated to finance activities relevant to such tax.<br /><br />Keywords : Local Tax
Anton-Jan Klasinc
This paper aims to asses the transformational impact of EU integrations and e-government on the structure of government and its effectiveness and efficiency. Two examples that are used for the purpose of analysis are the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the government agencies that cooperate with it, and the Ministry of Finance, Tax Administration. The first is an example of the agencification model that was stimulated by European integrations in the period from 2001-2009, mainly in order to decentralize decision making and governing of the EU funds. The other example is the cash fiscalization process of Tax Administration, that was stimulated by the processes that started from 2010-2012 and are connected with the need to react to the economic crisis with the onset in 2008 that continued to the present. This process is the opposite to the first one, as it is not the process of decentralization of fund distribution, but of centralization of collection of funds, that is based on cash accounting, not accrual accounting. It can be shown that both processes were stimulated by European integrations and EU fund management, i.e. by the need to increase the collection of funds by governmnet taxing in order to meet the requirements for EU fund programmes and in order to implement European values and reduce corruption. This process is blocked by the lack of trust of citizens in government and the unequal redistribution of collected funds.
Nestor M. Davidson, Sheila R. Foster
In the discourse of local government law, the idea that a mobile populace can “vote with its feet” has long served as a justification for devolution and decentralization. Tracing to Charles Tiebout’s seminal work in public finance, the legal-structural prescription that follows is that a diversity of independent and empowered local governments can best satisfy the varied preferences of residents metaphorically shopping for bundles of public services, regulatory environment, and tax burden. This localist paradigm generally presumes that fragmented governments are competing for residents within a given metropolitan area. Contemporary patterns of mobility, however, call into question this foundational assumption. People today move between — and not just within — metropolitan regions, domestically and even internationally. This is particularly so for a subset of residents — high human-capital knowledge workers and the so-called “creative class” — that is prominently coveted in this interregional competition. These modern mobile residents tend to evaluate the policy bundles that drive their locational decisions on a regional scale, weighing the comparative merits of metropolitan areas against each other. And local governments are increasingly recognizing that they need to work together at a regional scale to compete for these residents.This Article argues that this intermetropolitan mobility provides a novel justification for regionalism that counterbalances the strong localist tendency of the traditional Tieboutian view of local governance. Contrary to the predominant assumption in the legal literature, competition for mobile residents is as much an argument for regionalism as it has been for devolution and decentralization. In an era of global cities vying for talent, the mobility case for regionalism has significant doctrinal consequences for debates in local government law and public finance, including the scope of local authority, the nature of regional equity, and the structure of metropolitan collaboration.
Virginija Kondratienė
The paper discusses the importance of the subsidiarity principle to the regulation of the global processes. It also analyzes the role of the subsidiary principle as a fundamental principle of the European Union legal framework in the perception of the identity of the civilizations as well as its influence on political-legal systems. Not only does the paper emphasize the importance of this principle to the European identity, but it also discloses the role of the idea of the subsidiarity, which was played in legal and social consciousness of the communities attributed to the Western and Eastern civilizations. The principle of subsidiarity is used here as a tool to disclose the identity of the civilisations and differences among them. Simultaneously, its positive role is highlighted in the global community’s solution of different kinds of conflicts (ideological, economic, religious or cultural) that arise among nations, countries or different civilisations. This article is aimed to demonstrante that reception of the principle of subsidiarity and it‘s institutionalization in the European Union and national legal frameworks are not accidental. The tools of legislative regulation based on this principle prevent global system from disregarding cultural differences. At the same time, it does not allow local identity to destroy the world unity. Thus, unified social systems can perfectly coexist with national, regional and local units, the latter ones maintaining their organizational structure and cultural traditions. Subsidiarity idea combining opposites makes sense as a principle of creating this diversity in unity, which ensures the integrity of autonomous structures making up the whole, preserving national, regional and cultural specificities of countries and people around the globe. The support of these processes provides the public with the opportunity to discover effective forms for the realization of self-organization and implementation of their needs and developing appropriate social structures and legal institutions regulating their activity. Through the examination of the concept of subsidiarity and aspects of its practical application in organizations, the article discusses the polarities of the different structure and management forms of the institutionalization of the principle of subsidiarity in the countries and its effect in the formation of the governance levels in the state, showing how balance of powers is achieved based on the subsidiarity principle, creating an effective mechanism of function distribution (determination of exclusive competencies) and their implementation (institutional interaction, their operational control). In structuring the institutional systems of the organization of the state, the subsidiarity concept is complemented with the elements of the management system decentralization, democratization, federalism and regional and local self-governments.
George Kenneth Goldswain
Prior to 1994, South African taxpayers had little protection from fiscal legislation or the \ndecisions, actions or conduct of the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) that violated \ntheir common law rights. Parliament reigned supreme and in tax matters, the strict and literal \napproach to the interpretation of statutes was employed, with the judiciary often quoting the \nmantra that there is “no equity about tax”. The Income Tax Act (Act No 58 of 1962) was \nlittered with discriminatory and unfair provisions based on age, religion, sex and marital \nstatus. Even unreasonable decisions taken by SARS could not be reviewed by the judiciary as \n“unreasonableness” was not a ground for review of the exercise of a discretion by SARS. On \n27 April 1994, the constitutional order changed. Parliamentary supremacy was replaced with \nconstitutional supremacy and the rights to privacy, equality, human dignity, property and just \nadministrative action were codified in a Bill of Rights. The codification of these fundamental \nrights has materially changed the nature and extent of the rights of South African taxpayers. \nThe objective of this thesis, therefore, is to identify, analyse and discuss South African \ntaxpayers’ rights from a constitutional perspective. \nThe following major conclusions can be drawn from the research done: \n \n- the judiciary have been forced to reappraise their approach to the interpretation of statutes \nfrom a “strict and literal” to a “purposive” approach that is in accordance with the values \nunderpinning the new constitutional order; \n- new legislation has amended some of the so-called “reverse” onus of proof provisions that \nwere constitutionally unsound – this should result in greater fairness and consistency for \naffected taxpayers especially in the area of when penalties may be imposed; \n- the concept of clean hands and good facts can influence the judiciary when arguing that a \ntaxpayer’s right to just administrative action has been violated; and \n- discriminatory and unfair legislation and conduct on the part of SARS may and should be \nattacked on a substantive law basis, especially where human dignity is at stake. \n \nThe overall conclusion is that taxpayers’ rights are more far-reaching than prior to 1994 but \nstill have some way to go before they are fully interpreted and developed.
Paul Rangongo
This research set out to explore the financial management by SGBs in public primary schools. The challenges as they were experienced by SGBs were identified. This study revealed that some public schools SGBs are dysfunctional with regard to the management of finances. The understanding of roles and responsibilities pertaining to the management of finances is insufficient. SGBs are still battling to understand the roles especially of the chairperson, treasurer and the secretary. There is a lack of monitoring and understanding of roles. Understanding of the financial legislative framework is still a challenge to rural public schools. Knowledge and interpretation of the other policies and regulations, Acts and prescripts is a major concern. There are transgressions of, and non-compliance with the financial legislative framework. The study further found that the SGBs’ perceptions, experience, feelings and thoughts with regard to management of finances are such that their lack of knowledge and skills in finance due to inadequate training makes them feel uncertain and unsure of their competence to manage finances. The quality of the training that they have received does not adequately empower them to manage finance successfully as it is offered by incompetent people. The contents of the prescripts, circulars, manuals and Acts are not clear at all to them. The English language used in the documents makes it especially difficult for SGB members, especially the parent component, to grasp what is needed. In some of the schools investigated, budgeting processes are done unilaterally by the principals who dominate every sphere of governance and relevant stakeholders are not involved. The PED should bear in mind that an investment in SGB training is an investment in their empowerment and decentralization of finances to public schools. If well trained SGBs could render a better service in managing public finances. A procurement management system should be developed, monitored and evaluated from the circuit level. Schools must be encouraged to create procurement clusters or budget clubs. Lengthening the time in office for the SGB from three to four or even five years will add value for money in the form of human investment. The issue of continuity must be ensured after each and every election or four years of re-election, especially in the portfolio of treasurers. This will enable governors to develop their experience over a longer period. During this time there should be continuous training as stipulated in section 19 of SASA. The PED should consider incentive programmes or honoraria for SGB members as a sign of acknowledgement, based on performance, to improve the quality of their effectiveness and efficiency in the management of school finances. The department must develop a financial assessment programme and remediation initiatives to decisively respond to schools that are dysfunctional in terms of financial management. Copyright
Jitka Bohdalová
The bachelor thesis describes current budget system and budget process in conditions of the Czech Republic. The thesis deals with the characteristic of the budget system, its structure and process on the central and local level. It also deals with principles and rules. The attention is focused on budget of local government in whole thesis. The thesis uses the analysis that compiles in the practical part concrete data of financing of public domains on the regional level. The budget of the South Bohemia region and other incidental budgets are analyzed. For this purpose are monitored budget years 2007, 2008 and 2009 from the data of the South Bohemian Regional Authority. The classes of revenues and expenses of budgets are compared for these years. The purpose of using of financial instruments and assessment of the management of South Bohemia region is also analyzed. The topic of the bachelor thesis solves the issue of public budgets that is - not for the first look - touching each of us. Each citizen pays taxes, administrative charges or local taxes, etc., that are revenues of local budgets. It is important to understand how significant the principal of the fiscal decentralization is and when competences are delegated from the central level to the level of regions and municipalities - on this level, they are closer to the citizen. This stands even for local budgets that the citizen can control, influence by elected representatives or he can go to meetings of the representative board on the regional and even on the municipal (local) level because of the decentralization.
Emília Balážová
This contribution is aimed at comparing fiscal autonomy of self-governing units after fiscal decentralization in the Slovak republic. Evaluated and compared are budgets of selected Slovakian towns with the accent on the budget incomes creation. The contribution evaluates the level of self-financing as the share of own incomes to current expenditure, and also the level of self-sufficiency as the share of own incomes (including local taxes and fees) to total incomes.
Manfred Novak, Bettina Perthold-Stoitzner
Since the UOG (= Universitätsorganisationsgesetz, i.e. the University Organisations and Studies Act) of 1993 the Austrian universities have been increasingly seen to remodel themselves as independent »educational enterprises«. This progress based on the deregulation and decentralization of university procedural parameters reached its temporary culmination with the transformation of the universities into entities with complete independent legal status which took place in accordance with the UG (= Universitätsgesetz, i.e. Universities Act) of 2002. The abiding function of the state as a protector and furthermore, a financer of the universities has led to a relationship between the state, society and the universities based on academic achievement and responsibility. It must be added that the legislative intention of creating independent sites of academic research and teaching have increasingly been forced to take economic principles of commercial enterprise into consideration. The last step, up until now, in the intended all embracing »cultural change« within the universities came into being with the University Organisation Amendment Act of 2009 which contains a radical amendment to the legal situation which was valid until then. This change in the basic guidelines has played an essential part in the change of emphasis within the executive bodies of the universities, in a tendentious weakening of the democratically elected senate, an intensification of direct and indirect influence on the business of the university as well as to the relativization of the traditionally free university entrance in Austria. Developments that do not always seem to create an appropriate balance between academic freedom, state responsibility and social requirements.
Daniela Vašková
The thesis focuses on higher education as an economic good and identifies its characteristics in relation to the method of financing. The main objective is to analyze the system of financing post-secondary education in Canada. The focus of this paper is mainly evaluation of decentralization and thus participation rate of federal and provincial governments for funding. Then it looks at issue of tuition fees and financial aid for students. On the basis of the analysis are evaluated the pros and cons of the system. The last section is devoted to the current lack of funding tertiary education in Czech Republic and proposed concept of tuition fees.
Phillip J. Bryson
The Czech public sector pursuit of decentralization to achieve local self-government ( samospráva ) or local autonomy has probably been the greatest challenge of the country’s post-communist development. The EU considered the achievement sufficient to justify membership under criteria demanding democracy and market economics of member countries. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Jochen Zimmermann
The European Union (EU) is built on the federalist principle of subsidiarity, which we consider in the policy field of financial reporting. We attempt to answer the question, whether the current accounting regulation in Europe is sensibly balanced between centralized and decentralized decision making. Drawing on comparative accounting research to identify criteria for “local preferences,” we conclude that local solutions currently remain preferable for small and medium-sized companies. For them, a centralized solution would result in additional costs for at least some member states and their residents. Large international firms, in contrast, face an increasingly integrated capital market and rather need a central solution as currently implemented by the EU. However, recent developments in corporate finance may align local preferences on accountancy in the future.
James Alm, Jorge Martínez-Vázquez
The design of any system of transfers is a complex matter, and in practice very few countries are able to get it right, especially at the start of a process of decentralized system of finance. It is quite obvious that South Africa has made great strides in the design of its transfer system, primarily comprised of: an unconditional grant distributed by formula, the “Provincial Equitable Share” (PES); a system of conditional grants; and several other non-conditional transfers. In this report we focus exclusively on the analysis of the existing PES transfer and also on possible options for its reform. Our report consists of three main parts. We first summarize the main features of the PES. We then focus on what may be lacking with the current system. We finish with options for reform.
Thiess Buettner
This book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. Three key issues required for a well designed financing system are analyzed in depth, namely: tax assignment, equalization grants – i.e. redistribution of money from the wealthy regions or the national government to poorer regions, and the role of local governments in the administration of taxes.
Paul Berg-Dick, Michel Carreau, Deanne Field, Mireille Ethier
This book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. Three key issues required for a well designed financing system are analyzed in depth, namely: tax assignment, equalization grants – i.e. redistribution of money from the wealthy regions or the national government to poorer regions, and the role of local governments in the administration of taxes.
Hansjörg Blöchliger
This book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. Three key issues required for a well designed financing system are analyzed in depth, namely: tax assignment, equalization grants – i.e. redistribution of money from the wealthy regions or the national government to poorer regions, and the role of local governments in the administration of taxes.
Valentina Jacometti, D.L.M.T. Dankers-Hagenaars
According to the facts proven, the claimant was in the supermarket ?Torre Lucas? in the city of Murcia on 28 August 1994. There he took a glass bottle containing white lemonade from one of the shelves in order to buy it, which exploded just as he was placing it in a shopping bag. The shards reached his face and caused, among others, injuries to the iris and cornea of the right eye as a result of which his eyesight was reduced. The bottle has been identified as belonging to the commercial brand ?La Casera?. It is a product which is produced by the defendant, while a different firm, ?Carbónica Murciana S.L.?, is in charge of bottling and commercial distribution. It has also been proven that the only cause of the injuries was the low quality of the product destined to be sold, since the bottle exploded because it was defective. The claimant claimed the amount of 36.520.000 pesetas from the three companies mentioned above. The Court of First Instance partially admitted this claim in a decision on 18 April 1996; the commercial firm ?La Casera S.A.? appealed against the aforementioned decision before the Appellate Court of Murcia. On 21 March 1997 this Court rejected the appeal. The defendant brought an appeal before the High Court, which was denied. In its ruling, the Court rejected the arguments brought by the defendant, amongst them the following assertion. The defendant alleged that the claimant had not proven that the product was defective, according to Article 5 of the Products Liability Act. The point is that the explosion took place without the product having being manipulated by the consumer in any way; this means that the explosion was caused by the product itself. According to Article 3 of the Act referred above, a product is defective when it does not meet the safety that a person could lawfully expect from it, taking all circumstances into account and, in particular, the presentation of the product, the reasonably foreseeable use and the time when it was put into circulation. At any rate, a product is defective when it does not meet the safety normally offered by all the other items of the same series. In the case at stake it has been sufficiently proven that the bottle which caused the injuries to the claimant markedly lacked the safety required. Therefore, since it is an unsafe product, it was obviously defective in itself as from the time when it was put into circulation. The concept of defect laid down by the Act, which follows the EU Directive 85/374 EEC, is a flexible and broad one. In addition, since there is no place for subjective elements, the safety has to be seen as a requirement of the product, because every consumer is entitled to be able to use the product without any risk for his or her physical or patrimonial integrity. The existence of the defect results from the concept established by the Act 22/1994 and has to be connected to safety that the product must offer. If this requirement is not met, the product has to be deemed defective, thereby reversing the burden of proof, since it is the manufacturer who has to bring evidence that the product is suitable or that there are other causes that could exonerate him or her from liability.
William E. Thro
In America free public education is a constitutional value. Yet, although free public education for all is a constitutional value, America's public schools remain ravaged by savage inequalities, many of which are the direct result of significant financial disparities. Given the obvious conflict between the constitutional value of free public education for all and the funding parities created by the States' school finance systems, it is not surprising that the courts have been asked to intervene and vindicate the constitutional value of free public education for all by declaring that the current system of financing the schools is unconstitutional. However, a judicial solution to the problem has proved as elusive as a legislative or executive solution. Paradoxically, a major reason for the States' failure to adequately finance the achievement - the constitutional value of quality education for all - is the existence of other constitutional values. In other words, there are values within the American constitutional system that make it extremely difficult to achieve another constitutional value. This article explains how two American constitutional values - judicial restraint and decentralization - work together to prevent adequate funding of another constitutional value - a quality education for all.
Fumihiko Saito
No abstract is available for this record.
Roy Bahl
South Africa is at a crossroads in its decentralization policy. On the one hand, it has declared its intention to strengthen the fiscal powers of local governments. On the other hand, the institutional arrangement necessary to guarantee fiscal decentralization, the power to raise local revenues, has not yet been fully defined. Nor has a target been set for the vertical division of resources between the central and lower levels of government. The revenue dimension of fiscal decentralization in South Africa is the subject of this paper. In this paper, we describe the system of local government and local government finance in South Africa. We turn then to a discussion of the normative criteria for proper revenue assignment in an intergovernmental system, and to an evaluation of each of the major revenue sources. In that context, we consider the potential role of the property tax as a source of financing local government in South Africa.
Jeff Lenning
Click on a number in a financial report and get all the details. In the late 1980s, most accountants put aside their columnar pads and calculators and advanced to computers. In some respects, that was a big step, but in reality, very little actually changed: The financial reports were simply transferred from paper to the computer screen. Although the efficiency of report generation was improved, the reports were still static and what you saw on the screen, just as what you saw on the paper, was what you got. Unless extra information was added in a footnote or an addendum, there was no way such a static report--whether it was prepared on paper or on the computer--would show where any of the numbers came from or how they were calculated. Today's technology has given financial managers the opportunity to make reports both interactive and multidimensional. Mind you, we're not talking about leading-edge or tomorrow's technology. Set up properly, Microsoft Excel call allow financial report viewers to dig below the surface of a statement and uncover the source of any number and how it was calculated--in effect, to add new dimensions to otherwise static reports. The technique is commonly called drill-down functionality. Previously, we described how to distribute financial reports throughout an organization electronically rather than on paper (see Financial Reports in a Snap, JofA, Apr. 00, page 31). Once freed from the paper medium, reports also can become dynamic and interactive. This article demonstrates how to achieve drill-down functionality by creating an interactive selling, general and administrative (SGA exporting as a comma-delimited flat file works well. The minimum fields you need to export are month, department number, account number, account description, transaction description and transaction amount. Import this file into an Access table to which you keep appending the current month's data. The table should contain all the fields you export from the general ledger. …
Helmuth Cremer, Pierre Pestieau
Introduction Public finance teaches that in a multijurisdiction setting, such as an economic union of nations, there is a strong case for assigning the responsibility for income redistribution to the central, supranational government. The rationale is twofold. First, this makes it possible to avoid the depressive effects of tax competition; in a decentralized setting, national jurisdictions may tend to lower their tax rates in order to attract, say, capital or high-income earners. Second, this is the only way to redistribute income across nations. Even though this argument sounds strong and rather general, it is not completely clear-cut. It has been argued that decentralized jurisdictions may not be engaging in less income redistribution than central authorities, but rather may be engaging in a different kind of redistribution. This is because they can exploit informational or organizational advantages relative to the central authorities. If indeed national governments do possess better information or more motivation to effect income redistribution, it does not necessarily follow that the central government ought to abandon all responsibility for income redistribution. Rather, the central government should take advantage of all such information and motivation in designing its optimal policy. That is the viewpoint adopted in this study. We assume that both supranational and national governments attempt to redistribute income within their respective boundaries. Both rich and poor nations join the confederation, and the rich ones know that they are going to lose in the process of redistribution across countries. However, the central government has only imperfect information on individual countries' ability to pay: It observes only the aggregate redistribution effort of each country.
Thomas J. Graves
IGR and the New Federalism are synonymous. Former President Nixon summarized the New Federalism as "A cooperative venture among governments at all levels ... in which power, funds, and authority are channeled increas ingly to those governments which are closest to the people." IGR is essentially an art and primarily an exercise in the be havioral field. The thread which binds government officials intergovernmentally is the financing and administration of federal grants-in-aid and other forms of federal financial assis tance. Concern in the executive branch for IGR developed in the last 20 years; thus its roots in American governance are not yet very deep. The views and support of public interest groups as well as the sympathetic attention of Congress are essential to the pursuit of IGR goals and objectives in the executive branch. In relations between levels of government, partnership rather than paternalism must prevail. The rise of stronger chief executives and decentralization of power from Washington are noted. Confidence of Americans in their own government is essential to achieving a federal system working in all parts, well-managed and equitably financed.