Principio de suficiencia financiera: tasas locales

Abstract

Taxes (“tasas”) appear at the forefront of the debate about financial resources of local entities. This mechanism is particularly important for several reasons: (1) taxes’ regulations are less rigid than other regulations of sources of income; (2) taxes are borne out by a long tradition; (3) local entities are institutions that essentially render public services and (4) companies and individuals for their own profit use their public domain. In the context of taxes, the autonomy of local entities is clearly present due to the flexible scope of the facts and the quantification of the value: the local entity not only will decide whether or not to establish a tax, but also will determine its value with a considerable margin of appreciation. Nowadays, the economic crisis and the constitutional principle of financial sufficiency of local entities, should lead to analyze the possibilities, but also the limits, of the establishment and quantification of taxes. These decisions are often political in nature, related to the different ways for financing public services. However, the private use of de public domain should be always taxed proportionally to the obtained profit. Finally, the article will address the last updates in the regulations and the case law about local taxes. Key words: Taxes; public services.

Keywords:

taxes, public services