More than 65% of Ukrainian communities are ready to take part in the development of local tax administration reform, – survey

Thus, according to the results of a community survey conducted by the Association of Small Towns of Ukraine in January-February of this year, 65.8% of Ukrainian communities are ready to take part in the development of changes in the tax system, involving an increase in the role of local governments in the process of administering local taxes. The greatest readiness is declared by settlement communities – 78.4% of respondents, the readiness of urban and rural communities – 58.1% and 61.5%, respectively.

Thus, according to the results of the study, 47.2% of the communities of Ukraine declare that they are interested in taking on the functions of administering local taxes, only 13.4% of the communities are not interested. Another 43.9% of the communities chose the option “difficult to answer”.

At the same time, urban communities demonstrate the greatest willingness to take on the functions of administering local taxes: 50% of the respondents were in favor. Readiness at the level of settlement and rural communities is 35.3% and 43.7%, respectively.

Another 37.8% of communities noted that they are ready to take part in the development of a fiscal decentralization reform project and are interested in taking on the functions of administering local taxes.

“29.4% of the communities that were in the area of ​​active warfare, and 28.5% of the communities that are still in the area of ​​active warfare, are interested in taking over the functions of administering local taxes”the poll results say.

At the same time, for 47% of the communities, the issue of fiscal decentralization has a very high priority, for 28.7% – a high priority, for 17.7% – a medium one, for 3.6% – a low one, for another 3% – a very low one.

The survey also notes that fiscal decentralization is an opportunity to implement more educational, infrastructure, social projects (as 56.8% of respondents think), a tool to increase investment potential (47.5%), a way to accelerate the recovery of the country after the war (19.8 %)), a tool for increasing the independence of communities (18.5%). At the same time, 33.3% of respondents believe that fiscal decentralization may mean an increase in the burden on communities, and 21% of respondents need more information about the concept of reform.

The survey was conducted as part of the implementation by the Association of Small Towns of Ukraine and the GR-company “Magonova and Partners” of the project “Promoting the improvement of local tax legislation on the administration of local taxes in order to ensure the financial capacity of local governments under martial law and after it” with the support of the USAID Project “GOVERLA”. The purpose of this survey is to analyze the level of community support for fiscal decentralization reform, to assess the ability of local governments to expand their role in the administration of local taxes and to study the actual problems of communities in the context of local finance.

The data obtained will be used to develop legislative initiatives that provide for the expansion of the fiscal powers of local governments and contribute to an increase in the filling of local budgets.