Examination of the Practice of Tourism Tax Levying by Hungarian Municipalities in the Early of 2020`s

The aim of this study is to examine the activities of local governments in Hungary in relation to tourism taxes in the post-COVID-19 era. The research is significant in two respects: on the one hand, local taxes, and one type of these, tourism tax, are a very important source of financial independence for Hungarian municipalities. On the other hand, during the coronavirus pandemic, Hungarian municipalities were unable to introduce this type of tax or increase its rate. Within this framework, the research basically seeks to answer three questions: how local governments have approached the tou rism tax in recent decades and especially in the first half 2020s, what role does tourism tax play in the local government tax system and what factors influence local governments in deciding whether to levy the tourism tax and, if so, what tax rate they ap ply. The primary data sources for the research were data from the Hungarian State Treasury and the Central Statistical Office on the subject, and relevant legislation was also used. The research analysed data on the application of different types of local taxes introduced by municipalities (whether this type of tax has been introduced or not). In addition, the index developed by the author made it possible to compare tax rates (tourist tax – other types of local taxes, tax rates applied by different types of local governments). Using the above methods, the following main findings can be highlighted as the results of research. Firstly, Hungarian local governments relied more than average on the tourism tax, which is essentially linked to the nature o f the tax (it is not a tax on the local population, and therefore leaders of settlements need not fear a decline in popularity among local voters). On the other hand, the activity of local authorities in the field of tourism tax is largely influenced by the size of the settlements (larger settlements employ tourist tax at a higher rate and introduce higher tax rates) and their tourism classification (local governments in settlements located in tourist regions designated by the central government introduce th is type of tax more frequently, and in their case the tax rate is also higher)

Archaeology · Business · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Geography · Regional science · Tourism · Corporate Taxation and Avoidance · Economic and Fiscal Studies · Hungarian Social, Economic and Educational Studies

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