Tourist Tax in the Structure of Local Budget Revenues: The Experience of Ukraine and Poland

The financial capacity of local budgets is a key prerequisite for the sustainable development of territorial communities. In the context of decentralisation, local taxes and fees are of particular importance, which form the own revenues of local governments and reduce their dependence on inter-budgetary transfers. Among these sources of income, the tourist tax plays an essential role, combining fiscal functions with instruments for the development of tourism and local territories. This article aims to conduct a comparative assessment of the mechanisms for administering the tourist tax in Ukraine and Poland, to determine their fiscal effectiveness, and identify directions for enhancing the efficiency of collecting the tourist tax in Ukrainian territorial communities. The methodological basis of the study is a comparative statistical analysis of official data from reports of local governments, the State Tax Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Poland, and local financial departments. The results of the study show that despite the growth in absolute amounts, the share of the tourist tax in the revenues of local budgets of Ukrainian territorial communities remains relatively low – 0.03-0.04%, which indicates the limited fiscal potential of this source compared to the main tax revenues (personal income tax, single tax, land fee). However, as the experience of the Polyanytsya territorial community, on whose territory the Bukovel ski resort is located, shows, the tourist tax is acquiring a significant fiscal role in Ukrainian communities with developed tourism. In similar communes in Poland, the share of local tax is stable and significantly lower, at approximately 1.6-2.1%, because the revenue bases of communes are more diversified; therefore, the tourist tax has less fiscal significance. To increase the efficiency of the administration of the tourist tax in Ukraine, the study recommends: to introduce a transparent system of accounting for tourists and payments, including digital platforms for monitoring revenues; to integrate the collection mechanism into local development strategies and marketing programs of communities; to conduct additional research on the budgetary consequences of changing the method of setting the rate and its impact on the attractiveness of tourist areas. These measures are part of a broader concept for developing the tourism economy in Ukraine and require the development of organisational and methodological principles for their practical implementation, which will determine the prospects for further scientific research.