Local Charges in Tourism and Municipal Approaches to their Collection

There is no clear boundary between local fees and taxes, which creates a number of problems but also opportunities for research. Where a local charge has the attributes of a tax, it is appropriate to examine its functions and to check whether these functions are being fulfilled. In the Czech Republic, local taxes are levied according to the relevant law on the basis of a general binding decree. The collection usually entails problems that the municipality has to solve, which also applies to local taxes in the tourism sector. The aim of this article is to identify the problems associated with the collection of local fees under the Local Fees Act and to outline solutions to these problems. The actual research was conducted using a guided interview method in a selected economically weak region with a significant contribution of tourism to the regional economy. The identified problems related to the lack of a uniform system of fee collection, the lack of a uniform incentive system for fee collection and the ambiguity of the interpretation of the Local Fees Act became the basis for outlining solutions to them based on the results of the research.