THE ROLE OF LOCAL TAXES IN STIMULATING ECONOMIC COOPERATION OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES
Authors: LAIKO O.I. , TALPA V.P. , CHECHOVICH Z.V. 
Published: February 2021

Topicality. Local taxes and fees are a means of filling basic budgets not only in the direct sense, when the fiscal function of such taxes is performed but also when the regulatory function of such taxes is activated and local authorities have the opportunity to improve the business climate of their economic mesosystem and change its structure, giving preference to the most promising types of economic activity. Currently, Ukraine has adopted a general institutional framework that makes it possible to conduct economic cooperation of territorial communities, but the provisions of legislative, methodological, advisory nature on the use of local taxes as stimulators of interregional cooperation and activators of cooperation agreements that are based on added value and effective involvement of local resources in the process of exogenous economic exchange have not yet been developed. Therefore, solving such scientific and applied problem as the development of guidelines for the use of local taxes as tools of stimulation of economic cooperation of communities and increase the added value generated in their territorial and economic systems is actual topic of national and international research on regional systems for developing or developed countries, where the role of local economic and administrative initiatives is incompletely realized. Aim and tasks. The purpose of this paper is to identify the scientific and methodological basis on the use of local taxes as regulators of business activity and activators of economic cooperation and means of increase of added value, establishing of the list of key local taxes through which it is possible to implement regulatory measures and identify types and groups of taxes, which are the most effective means of influencing business activity, from the standpoint of stimulating economic cooperation and the formation of horizontal ties between the participants of cooperation and division of labor in territorial communities. Research results. Theoretical, institutional and scientific-applied bases of economic cooperation of territorial-economic systems in Ukraine and other countries of the world are considered. It is established that the implementation of interregional, intraregional and international cooperation of communities has a positive effect on the level of economic development, as the formation of points of concentration of capital and business activity increases economic growth, uses local resources more efficiently, increases added value and depth of raw materials processing and there is the active involvement of territories in the processes of the international division of labor. Due to the points of economic growth formed based on economic cooperation in the form of agglomerations, clusters, subregions and other forms of territorial economic associations for the developed countries of the world (Austria, Spain, Germany, Great Britain) the predominant of gross product creation (from 50% to 70 %) became characteristic in such territorial and economic associations. Based on the analysis of the regulatory framework and other components of institutional support for economic cooperation in the developed world, it is determined that the general institutional framework and legalization of the instrument of cooperation for effective economic development is not enough, as levers of state regulation and realization the supporting means should be introduced. In this aspect, special attention is paid to local taxes and fees, because the initiatives of local authorities must be supported by certain powers to regulate the economic development of communities. The most effective at the present stage of development of domestic territorial and economic systems in Ukraine as regulators can be used such local taxes as a single tax on entrepreneurs, land fees and real estate tax. A mechanism for stimulating economic cooperation in communities with the use of personal income tax, which is national, but ensures the incomes collection of local budgets by almost 60%, has also been identified and proposed. An approach to the implementation of simplified and reduced taxation of a number of local taxes in promising investment projects is proposed. But such means are provided only for the projects that keep the level of wages 2.5-3 times higher than the average wage in the region, which will increase the welfare of the population and will provide filling local budgets by increasing the base for personal income tax. Conclusion. Scientific and methodological recommendations for tax incentives for economic cooperation of territorial communities in Ukraine are still under development and formation, but the solution to this problem is a promising area of research. The list of basic local taxes that can be used to enhance cooperation between local communities, the key incentives for the application of targeted benefits from local taxes, should be supplemented by regulatory policy means in further research on this topic.