The Impact of the Financial Authority of Provincial Councils on the Occurrence of Double Taxation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64184/ajlps.V2.I4.Y2025.P28-80.242Keywords:
Financial jurisdiction, provincial councils not organized within a region, double taxation, tax agreementsAbstract
The constitution granted provinces not organized into a region powers close to those of a region, despite adopting a decentralized approach to provincial governance. However, some provisions contradict this decentralized approach, including granting provincial councils legislative authority and even prioritizing local law over federal law in shared jurisdictions. Undoubtedly, granting provinces legislative powers entails the authority to impose local taxes and fees. This could lead to residents of certain provinces being subjected to local taxes and fees in addition to federal taxes and fees, resulting in double taxation. This also applies to foreign residents and investors in the provinces. Therefore, further regulation by the federal legislative authority is necessary, through legislation that clarifies the nature of these taxes, how they are levied, and specifies all aspects of their technical implementation.
The aim of the research was to highlight the features of the application of administrative decentralization in Iraq and to analyze the constitutional texts and the texts of laws related to the field of research in order to know the extent of the conflict in the texts regarding the authority to impose local taxes and fees by the governorate councils and to look at the practices of the federal government to prevent the constitutional jurisdiction of the governorate councils, even though administrative decentralization does not conflict with the authority of the governorates to impose taxes and fees if it is by a legislative text issued by the federal legislative authority that defines its main features and to avoid including in temporary budget laws clauses that give the governorates the authority to impose temporary fees and to strengthen the role of the administrative apparatus and raise its administrative efficiency to exercise its role in leading the governorate.
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