On 5 July 2021, the Institute of Public Finance presented the results of the seventh research cycle related to budget transparency of all 576 Croatian counties, cities and municipalities. Average budget transparency - measured by the number of budget documents published on the websites of counties, cities and municipalities - is improving from year to year, and in this cycle is 4.5 out of 5. The aim of the research is to determine whether all counties, cities and municipalities publish each of the five key budget documents on their websites in a timely manner. The publication of these five key budget documents can be considered only the first, but a fundamental step towards fuller transparency and citizen participation, i.e. a necessary precondition for educating citizens and their involvement in local budget processes. Only citizens, councilors and journalists who are knowledgeable about the budget and timely informed are able to constructively participate in making decisions on the collection and spending of local funds, as well as in supervising the accountability of local government authorities.

Organized by the Institute of Public Finance, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, two prominent authorities on taxation, virtually presented their book “Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages” on June 28th 2021.  

Keen and Slemrod explore history of taxation, dealing with the most significant events concerning the history of taxation. The presentation included most interesting parts of the book and examples of taxation around the world and across the ages. They emphasized that experience of taxation in the past can teach decision-makers to develop and bring better tax policies in the future. In that way, the presentation underlines the most preposterous and dramatic episodes since antient time to recent events that marked the history of taxation. 

A recorded lecture and an accompanying presentation are available at the links.