Shares of Local Government in State Income Taxes in the Light of Theoretical Postulates of Fiscal Federalism

Abstract

In the Polish legal system, shares of local government units in state income taxes (PIT and CIT) fall into the category of the local government’s own revenues. This is against the theoretical postulates of the fiscal federalism concept, which treats said income categories as transfer revenues that do not meet the basic attributes of the so-called decentralized taxes. The concept of local income tax is much closer to the idea of federalism, the essence of which is to transfer a specific part of the tax base into the scope of fiscal sovereignty of local government units. Not only does this article aim to evaluate the specificity and fiscal significance of shares in state income taxes as a source of income for local government in Poland, but also to confront the currently used solutions with theoretical postulates of the fiscal federalism doctrine, primarily in the context of the idea of the so-called decentralized tax and the closely related municipal PIT concept.