Tourist tax administration in the fiscal target system for hospitality businesses

Abstract

Decentralization reforms cause social challenges and shape a new configuration, conditions and behavioral etiquette for business entities in the fiscal environment of local communities in Ukraine. Destinations with significant tourism potential can form a powerful budgetary resource through local taxes, including tourist tax. The study aims to develop a tourist tax administration system in the context of drawing up local budgets and fiscal targets of hospitality businesses. The dynamics of tourist tax revenues to local budgets was traced, which shows a rapid growth in the pre-pandemic period by 47.1% and a slight decrease in 2020. The forecast indicators for the tourist tax growth are determined: by the end of 2022, it is 73.4% compared to 2019. The likelihood of achieving such results is justified by the increase in domestic tourist flows and the possibilities of increasing the efficiency of the tourist tax administration system. Most united territorial communities (UTC) have problems with formalizing the management process, lack of strategic vision, partial or complete lack of information on budgeting and administration of taxes and fees, including tourist tax. This led to the following proposals: the development of strategies and tactics that motivate fiscal discipline; assistance to cooperation of hospitality entities with UTCs; providing digitalization, agilization and forward-looking improvements that set benchmarks for business. The emphasis is on hospitality businesses’ ability of effectively utilize the financial resources generated by the tourist tax, which will contribute to developing the overall potential of UTCs and shaping the competitiveness of territories.