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OECD Fiscal Decentralisation Database

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The OECD Fiscal Decentralisation Database provides comparative information on the following indicators analysed by level of government sector (Federal or Central, including Social Security, State/Regional and Local), for OECD member countries between 1965 and 2022.

Tax autonomy of state and local government

Tax Autonomy Indicators

Tax Autonomy Indicators (Table 1: 1995; 2000-2022)

Explanatory Annex (detailed information provided by countries on their tax autonomy settings)

The tax autonomy indicators are obtained from a survey of national administrations, who apply the OECD typology of tax autonomy, indicating the degree of tax autonomy of subnational governments over different revenue sources, to data from the OECD Revenue Statistics publication. See the Methodological Guide for more information.

Methodological Guide to the Tax Autonomy Indicators

Revenue and spending shares of state and local government

Consolidated expenditure

Consolidated government expenditure as percentage of GDP [Table 4: 1970 - 2022]

Consolidated government expenditure as percentage of total general government expenditure (consolidated) [Table 5: 1970 - 2022]

The consolidated expenditure of each level of government is defined as total spending minus the inter-governmental transfer spending of that government level.

Consolidated total general government expenditure is defined as global total expenditure at general government level plus the total inter-governmental property expenditure. The addition is made because the latter represents payments by one level of government for a service provided by another government level and it essentially avoids consolidation of property expenditure at general government level. Social security funds are treated as part of central government.

Consolidated revenue

Consolidated government revenue as percentage of GDP [Table 6: 1970 - 2022]

Consolidated government revenue as percentage of total general government revenue (consolidated) [Table 7: 1970 - 2022]

The consolidated revenue of each level of government is defined as total revenue minus the intergovernmental transfer revenue of that government level.

Consolidated total general government revenue is defined has been calculated as global total revenue at general government level plus the total inter-governmental property income. The addition is made because the latter represents payments by one level of government for a service provided by another government level and it essentially avoids consolidation of property income at general government level. Social security funds are treated as part of central government.

Tax revenue

Tax revenue as percentage of GDP [Table 8: 1965 - 2022]

Tax revenue as percentage of total general government tax revenue [Table 9: 1965 - 2022]

The tax revenue data is obtained from the OECD Revenue Statistics database.

Intergovernmental transfer expenditure

Inter-governmental transfer expenditure as percentage of GDP [Table 10: 1970 - 2022]

Inter-governmental transfer expenditure as percentage of total government expenditure [Table 11: 1970 - 2022]

Inter-governmental transfer expenditure is defined as transfers payable to other levels of governments. The figures do not take account of either transfers payable to the supranational level of government or transfers between the central government level and social security which are considered to be internal.

Total general government expenditure is defined as the sum of central, including social security expenditure, state/regional expenditure and local expenditure. No consolidation has been applied (apart from the internal between central and social security) because the transfers data are non-consolidated by definition.

Intergovernmental transfer revenue

Inter-governmental transfer revenue as percentage of GDP [Table 12: 1970 - 2022]

Inter-governmental transfer revenue as percentage of total government revenue [Table 13: 1970 - 2022]

Intergovernmental transfer revenue has been defined as transfers payable to each level of government by other levels of government.  The figures do not take account of either transfers from the supranational level of government or transfers between the central government level and social security which are considered to be internal.

Total general government revenue is defined as the sum of central, including social security revenue, state/regional revenue and local revenue. No consolidation has been applied (apart from the internal consolidation between central and social security) because the transfers data are non-consolidated by definition.

User fees

User fees as percentage of GDP [Table 14: 1970 - 2022]

User fees as percentage of total general government revenue (consolidated) [Table 15: 1970 - 2022]

User fees are defined as the sum of two items from National Accounts: “Market output and output for own final use” and “payments for non-market output”.

The consolidated total revenue is defined as the global total revenue at general government level plus the total inter-governmental property income.

Revenue structure of state and local government

Intergovernmental transfer revenue as a share of total revenue

Inter-governmental transfer revenue as percentage of total revenue for each level of government [Table 17: 1970 - 2022]

Transfers between the central government level and social security are considered to be internal and have not been taken into account when calculating either the inter-governmental transfer revenue or the total revenue.

Balances and debt of state and local government

Debt

Total liabilities excluding insurance technical services as percentage of GDP [Table 19: 1970 - 2022]

Debt is defined as the consolidated total liabilities item from National Accounts excluding insurance technical reserves. Non-consolidated data have been used for 6 countries (Iceland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States) where consolidated data are not available.

Consolidated expenditure by government function

Sectoral indicators

The sectoral tables provide public expenditure data for each of the ten COFOG functions (e.g. healthcare, education, social protection, etc.) consolidated and disaggregated by level of government. The database provides results for the default "Spent by" consolidation methodology and an alternative "Funded by" approach.

Consolidated COFOG expenditure using 'Spent by' approach [Table 22: 1995-2020]

Consolidated COFOG expenditure using 'Funded by' approach [Table 23: 1995-2020]

Refer to Dougherty and Montes (2023) for methodological details.

Spending autonomy of state and local government

Spending Autonomy Indicators

Spending Autonomy Indicators (Table 21: 2019)

The spending autonomy indicators are obtained from a survey of national administrations, who complete a questionnaire on spending power, indicating the degree of spending autonomy of subnational governments in various sectors.

Refer to Dougherty and Phillips (2019) and Kantorowicz and van Grieken (2020) for methodological details.

Fiscal rules of state and local government

Fiscal rules indicator

Archived indicators

Tax revenue as a share of total revenue

Tax revenue as percentage of total revenue for each level of government (internally consolidated for the Central and Social Security sectors only) [Table 16: 1969 - 2012]

In this table, the tax revenue data are shown according to National Accounts definition. This is in order to be consistent with the total revenue figures for each level of government which are also obtained from that source. Internal consolidation between central and social security intergovernmental transfers have been applied when calculating the total revenue at central level.

The recurrent tax on immovable property

These tables provide an overview on recurrent immovable property taxation (category 4100 in the Revenue Statistics classification) in OECD countries in a comparative perspective. Tables show the scope of property taxation and the items that are taxed; the approaches for assessing and updating property values; the government level responsible for property taxation; tax exemptions and abatements; and tax rates and their variation across sub-national governments. The tables will be updated every two years.

Coverage, assessment and valuation, OECD countries, 2014

Tax abatements and tax rates, OECD countries, 2014