Featured graphic. Local taxation and spending as a share of GDP in large Western European countries

摘要

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, local authorities in four of the five largest Western European countries now levy taxes that exceed 3% of their country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Municipalities in each country use these taxes to fund around half of their spending: the balance is largely made up of central grants, many of which are earmarked for spending on services such as schools or the police. This has been the case in France, Spain, and post-unification Germany since data became available for each country, and has also characterised the situation in Italy since Italian local authorities were granted greater fiscal powers in the late 1990s. As such, local government in each of these countries enjoys a reasonable degree of decision-making autonomy from the centre in terms of fiscal and spending policies.