Special Legal Solutions Introduced in Regard to the Relationship with COVID-19 Affecting Municipal Budgets – Selected Issues

Abstract

The article discusses the legal changes related to the finances of communes, introduced into the Polish legal order to counteract adverse social effects and the economic aspects of the SARS- CoV–2 epidemic. It indicates the impact of new regulations on the website revenue for the budgets of municipalities and the powers of municipal authorities concerning, first and foremost, budget control and implementation. The solutions that were presented in detail have the goal of helping entrepreneurs most economically affected by the pandemic – such as the possibility of exemption from real estate tax by resolution of the commune council for part of 2020 and selected months of 2021, an extension of instalment payment deadlines for real estate tax, or the failure to collect the market fee in 2021. Essentially, only some of these solutions provide for financial compensation from the commune budgets. The consequences for the budgets of communes related to the changes indicated, in the context of the need to perform their tasks.