The Quality of Real Property Taxation Regulation in the Slovak Republic – the Fairness of the Current System

This article provides for the analysis of the real property taxation legal regulation from the viewpoint of the quality assessment with special attention paid to the tax fairness principle. The authors concluded that: A) the current system is quite simple and favourable for the municipalities, but they also found the problem with: B) non-considering the real value of the taxed properties and applicability of only a limited number of corrective factors to adjust the area-based tax system (while, actually, the ability to apply at least these factors is a positive feature of the Slovak real property tax system); C) disparities in the tax burden division and errors in the practical application of competences (in some cases even bordering on abusive practices) accruing from the competence of municipalities to adjust the statutory regulation by their by-laws (which itself is a positive feature of the system as it allows them to adjust the regulation according to their needs); and D) the low affinity to reform or improve the negatives of the current regulation. The research question of whether the current regulation of real property taxation is qualitatively adequate in terms of tax fairness herein examined was answered negatively with respect to the above-mentioned negatives