Local taxes, especially for business over the past 10 years - have grown significantly. This shows an analysis of the Institute of Market Economy.
The study covers four main taxes - on real estate, on the acquisition of property, the tax on vehicles and the patent tax for retailers, the BNR specifies.
Experts from the institute calculate the index as an arithmetic mean value of the four tax rates for each municipality. According to the analysis, the tax burden is higher in the municipalities of the Southern Black Sea coast and in the regional centers, but these are also the most financially independent municipalities in our country. The lowest taxes are in sparsely populated and remote areas that are economically less developed.
In the last decade, much of the tax increase was due to the introduction of Euro 1 and Euro 2 environmental standards in 2019, which led to a substantial increase in vehicle tax, according to the economists' analysis. Then the tax increased in 210 municipalities.
The Institute for Market Economy also proves a noticeable trend in the years of elections, taxes are raised the least. Immediately after that, local government activity on increasing the tax burden increased and gradually decreased as the next election approached. And they explain that municipal authorities resort to tax increases to compensate for their financial dependence on the central budget.