Property Valuation and Taxation for Fiscal Sustainability – Lessons for Poland

Research undertaken by the World Bank in Europe and the Central Asia Region indicates that there are four principal preconditions for introducing value-based recurrent property tax reforms: comprehensive property registration, a reliable source of data about the prices achieved in transactions, a valuation infrastructure that complies with internationally-recognized standards, and an efficient tax collection system. In spite of the arguments in favor of value-based recurrent property taxes, many countries raise revenue from recurrent property taxes using an area basis, and most countries raise relatively little revenue from recurrent property taxes. The paper has been written according to both the dogmatic-legal method and comparative method. It presents current solutions adopted in post-Soviet European countries in order to draw out recommendations and suggestions for Poland. The original reasoning for the paper is that, amongst many scientific papers concerning thorough debate of property tax systems, few have focused on post-Soviet countries and the issues that arise in transition countries. Most concern Western European or North American countries with different economies, politics, institutions, and histories to the Eastern ones. Authors of the paper believe that the article can fill the gap in discussions on the shape of the property tax system reform in Poland and the reforms carried out in Eastern Europe countries.