Fiscal Decentralization In Spain

This highly original book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. The three key issues required for a well designed financing system are analyzed in depth herein, namely: tax assignment, equalization grants (i.e. redistribution of money from the wealthy regions or the national government to poorer regions) and the role of regional government in the administration of taxes. Fiscal Federalism and Political Decentralization will be of particular interest to academics and researchers of economics, public economics, public finance and public choice. It will also appeal to politicians and policy makers as well as organizations and agencies related to the economy and fiscal federalism.

Fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization are the main pillars of federal and decentralized systems. Although there are comparable problems, competences and designs of these systems vary significantly. Furthermore, the systems are faced with pressure to justify and to reform due to the financial and debt crisis. In this volume, leading regional and financial experts discuss different approaches and strategies of shaping and reforming fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization in Austria, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The situation in each country is analyzed and compared. The content of this volume includes designs of decentralized financial systems, consequences of changing governments on the systems, and repercussions of the financial and debt crisis on politics. Also addressed are abilities to reform the main areas of the systems.

Provides an analysis of the fiscal reform process experienced in Spain. This work focuses on the political economy of tax reform in Spain, and the fact that political and economic bodies were able to form alliances at key junctures during the process in order to push reforms forward.

Aquesta publicació analitza la descentralització fiscal, amb especial atenció al cas espanyol des d'una perspectiva econòmica i politològica.

"In this essential book, Sara Torregrosa transforms our perception of the tax reform of the Spanish democracy. She shows that, in the reality of tax collection, progressivity and tax fraud did not change so much as to reduce tax inequality and improve the distribution of income, after taxes and transfers. In this way, the book points towards a relative failure of the Welfare State in Spain." -- Francisco Comín, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid "Sara Torregrosa Hetland's excellent book, The Spanish Fiscal Transition is an insightful study of the modern history of the Spanish tax system. But it is much more than that. This book explores the dilemmas and constraints that all modernizing states face when trying to build a comprehensive tax system in the context of an increasingly competitive and fluid international economy. This book also helps explain how and why the broad preferences of citizens are so difficult to achieve in Spain and, indeed, in virtually any country today. In short, this impressive monograph should be of interest to students of taxation and political economy as well as those interested in understanding why countries like Spain have such difficulty achieving their stated aims as they move into the 21st century. " -- Sven Steinmo, Professor,University of Colorado, Boulder This book provides an analysis of the process and outcomes of the tax reform, with a focus on progressivity, redistribution, and inequality. Between 1977 and 1986, Spain underwent a comprehensive tax reform which shaped its fiscal system until today. It was made in connection with the transition to democracy and indeed was understood as a fundamental part of the political change. The book situates the reform both within Spanish history and international trends in tax systems and connects it to the expansion of the welfare state and regional decentralization in Spain. The analysis reveals that the tax system failed to attain progressivity, and significant levels of fraud had a noticeable impact on inequality. Because of this, fiscal redistribution remained limited. In the new political economy of the second globalization, late democratic and fiscal transitioners were unable to emulate the path of the welfare state forerunners. Sara Torregrosa Hetland is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Economic History in Lund University, Sweden. She previously obtained a Degree in History from the University of Alicante and completed her Ph.D. in Economic History at the University of Barcelona (2016). Her main areas of work are the history of taxation, inequality, and public policies, in Western Europe and Latin America, from the late 19th century to the present.

European Union law has an increasing impact on the development of Member States' taxation powers. This is particularly evident in the case of sub-central entities, such as the Autonomous Communities. These limits are themselves in a process of transformation, so it is not always easy to know in advance the real scope of this legal framework.Autonomous Communities have constitutionally recognised authority to establish taxes, which is, however, more theoretical than real because the tax space is mainly occupied by taxes levied by the central Government and municipalities. Since 1997, some reforms have attempted to grant greater regulatory scope in tax matters. However, this legal system has been built with its back to EU law. Many regional measures are clearly contrary to the EU legal framework, but this has not provoked a sufficient coordinated reaction. Given the confluence of many of the European rules that are relevant to tax matters and the limits derived from the Spanish Constitution, it would be possible to advance towards greater coordination that would not entail a reduction in financial autonomy and that would in fact increase fiscal co-responsibility.

Fiscal Federalism 2022 surveys recent trends and policies in intergovernmental fiscal relations and subnational government. Accessible and easy-to-read chapters provide insight into: good practices in fiscal federalism; the design of fiscal equalisation systems; measuring subnational tax and spending autonomy; promoting public sector performance across levels of government; digitalisation challenges and opportunities; the role of subnational accounting and insolvency frameworks; funding and financing of local government public investment; and early lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for intergovernmental fiscal relations.

This book draws on experiences in developing countries to bridge the gap between the conventional textbook treatment of fiscal decentralization and the actual practice of subnational government finance. The extensive literature about the theory and practice is surveyed and longstanding problems and new questions are addressed. It focuses on the key choices that must be made in decentralizing, on how economic and political factors shape the choices that countries make, and on how, by paying more attention to the need for a more comprehensive approach and the critical connections between different components of decentralization reform, everyone involved might get more for their money.

This book analyzes the reasons for lackluster performance selected Latin American countries in mobilizing subnational own-source revenues and explores policy options to increase these revenues as efficiently and equitably as possible. Seven case studies--Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela--span a wide range of characteristics, including federal and unitary countries, different geographical sizes, levels of economic development, and degrees of revenue decentralization. In this book, subnational governments include both intermediate and local levels of government, which are distinguished in the case studies. Together, the case studies provide a reasonably representative picture of the challenges faced throughout Latin America in mobilizing subnational own-source revenues in a manner that supports equitable growth.