A Candle in the Wind? The Tax Autonomy of Hungarian Municipalities in Light of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

This article aims to offer a brief introduction to the system of local tax autonomy in Hungary, primarily by accentuating its peculiar features compared to other systems used in the region. Particular attention is paid to the local business tax, a less typical source of local revenue, which constitutes the backbone of the Hungarian system, and to the relatively recently introduced possibility for local authorities to levy so-called ‘settlement taxes’ on an open-list basis. The author then describes how the coronavirus pandemic and the measures aimed at mitigating its economic consequences affected local governments’ financing mechanism and fiscal capacity. Finally, by drawing conclusions from these occurrences, the resilience of local tax autonomy in Hungary is evaluated.