The revenue and taxational dimension of fiscal autonomy in local governments

Today, local governments are expected to provide the most appropriate number and quality of services to local people's preferences and expectations. At the point of meeting the increased service burden arising from this expectation, the transfer of authority and resources from the central government to the local governments becomes more meaningful. These transfers are explained by fiscal autonomy, which is the main element of local autonomy. In the aspect of fiscal autonomy, how the revenue structure and taxation authority of local governments is defined is of great importance. Therefore, the revenue structure and taxation authority of local governments determine the level and degree of fiscal autonomy and these differ in terms of country practices. In this study, which is aiming at determining the relevance of fiscal autonomy to the Turkish central and local government structure, theoretical framework was established by reviewing the current literature, USA, Germany, Spain and Italy practices were selected for comparison of the state models, and the revenue and taxation aspects of fiscal autonomy in Turkey was examined in the consideration of legislation and current fiscal datasets. In this study, it has been reached conclusion that in Turkey, fiscal autonomy is secured by constitutional and local government laws, local revenues are insufficient to meet local needs, but the sense of Turkish fiscal autonomy would not allow unlimited fiscal autonomy in accordance with the unitary state model.