Poliakov O. Legal regulation of local taxation in Ukraine in the context of financial decentralization

The dissertation is devoted to thorough theoretical research and improvement of theoretical bases and practice of legal regulation of local taxes and fees in the context of financial decentralization in Ukraine. In the context of European integration, the authorities faced the issue of solving the problem of effective filling of local budgets and reducing the dependence of the local community on subsidies from the central government. Because until 2014, local budgets received 2.4-3.6% of revenues from local taxes and fees, which negatively affected the ability of local governments (hereinafter –local governments) to solve problems of local importance. After the introduction of the decentralization reform in 2015, revenues from local taxes and fees increased to almost 26%. Thus, the financial autonomy of the regions is the key to their stable existence and development, including preventing political and financial pressure from the central government. That is why, in order to solve the set tasks, local governments must have significant and tangible fiscal sources, the main of which are certainly local taxes and fees. Accordingly, in order to bring Ukraine closer to European standards and give local government bodies real capacity to implement their functions, an important step is the course of financial decentralization to increase local government tax powers, provide them more freedom in local tax policy, and expand the range of taxable objects, rise contributions from regulated income, namely relevant national taxes, review the powers of the executive, representative local authorities and local government to ensure more effective control over local budget revenues, create a real opportunity to address local issues and meet public needs within its administrative-territorial unit (hereinafter – ATU).