Evaluation of municipal taxes within the scope of the principle of subsidiarity

Local administrations are an importantelement of public administration in all countries. These administrations are indispensable institutions in ensuring efficiency in local servis. When it comes to local administration, the first administrative unit that comes to mind municipalities. Municipalities have administrative and financial autonomy. This autonomy is mostly based on the decision making authority to collect revenues and to decide on the point of spending. It is not possible to talk about unlimited autonomy. Municipalities have been given many duties and powers in line with the laws in order to meet the common needs of the local people. Municipalities make various expenditures in order to fulfill all these duties and they must have sufficient income sources to finance these expenditures. Considering the financing resources of municipalities, it is possible to classify them as own revenues, transfer revenues between administrations and borrowing revenues. The income item, which has the most important share in the own revenue sources of municipalities, is taxes. What the municipal taxes are in our country are specified in the Law on Municipal Revenues No. 2464. Apart from the tax revenues included in this law, Property Tax revenues are also an important source of income for municipalities. This study is based on the examination of tax revenues of municipalities. For his purpose, firstly, the financial structure of municipalities in Turkey was examined and municipal tax revenues were explained and the share of these tax revenues in total revenues and the share of each tax in revenue generation were examined.