Agricultural Tax: An (Un)Reliable Source of Local Government Revenues in Poland

The issues discussed in the article are part of the area of research dedicated to local government finances in Poland, in particular the optimization of the fiscal legal construction of agricultural tax. The aim of the paper is to diagnose the determinants of the amount of municipal revenue from this tax, and to determine the significance of this revenue in the budgets of the indicated local government units. The hypotheses adopted in the paper assume that (i) the amount of agricultural tax revenue in Poland is determined not so much by the scope of tax authority of local authorities as by the structure of this tax defined by law; and that (ii) the basis for determining the amount of agricultural tax in force over the years does not secure the interests of local authorities in the context of recognizing this levy as a stable and efficient source of budget revenue financing local government expenditures. The study uses the method of critical analysis of literature and legal regulations, as well as the method of comparisons over time and methods of descriptive statistics (structure and dynamics indicators). Empirical data (obtained from the collections of public statistics) are presented for the years 2008–2023. The results obtained confirm the strong dependence of revenue from agricultural tax in Poland on determinants which its beneficiaries (municipalities) have no influence on, including in particular the purchase price of rye, and the low fiscal efficiency of this tax.