Revenue Autonomy of Local Self-Government – Poland Against the Background of Selected European Union Countries

Abstract

Revenue autonomy is one of the fundamental pillars of self-government in the economic sense. The assurance of LSUs to a significant share of own revenue should be based on their character, above all the impact on their size, the predictability, the freedom of disposal and the independence of local governments from the state budget. The level of fiscal autonomy of self-government is a derivative of national solutions adopted in Poland, the level of decentralization, the amount, type and efficiency of self-government income sources combined with the spatial distribution of the tax base and the scope of taxation power of the self-government sector. It largely determines the development opportunities of local communities. Hence, it is important to address this topic in various aspects. This work aims to analyze the level of revenue autonomy of local government units in Poland against the background of selected European Union countries, indicating the importance of taxation power in creating this autonomy.