The Shadow Economy and Public Revenues

Abstract

Conducting business activity or simply living in a given area entails incurring burdens in the form of various types of public levies for the benefit of the state, a local government unit or another public-law association. However, not all those who are obliged to do so always properly perform their duties, as they operate in the shadow economy. The thesis of the study is that among public entities the most loss (in the form of revenue loss) due to the existence of the shadow economy market is felt by territorial self-government units, including municipalities, which therefore may have at their disposal a smaller financial envelope for the implementation of tasks imposed on them. The aim of the study, which is to identify the problems related to 1) estimating the size of the shadow economy in Poland and public income losses due to its existence, 2) determining the extent to which public entities lose income as a result of the shadow economy and determining the order of their size, 3) the existence of the shadow economy in the context of the teaching of the Catholic Church, and 4) the types of necessary actions to be taken to limit the loss of public income related to the shadow economy. The objectives were subordinated to the layout of the study, in which particular attention was paid to the loss of territorial self-government units’ income due to the existence of the shadow economy.