Tax Efficiency in Terms of Fiscal Consolidation in EU Countries

A review of the literature can be seen that the type of fiscal consolidation is important for consumer/investor confidence and therefore of relevance to the economy and the condition of public finances. The aim of the article is to show the correlation of tax efficiency (measured by the level of tax burden) and the episode of fiscal consolidation in EU countries. The concept of fiscal efficiency or tax efficiency was used after W. Modzelewski (2014), while the definition of a fiscal consolidation episode was adopted by F. Heylen et al. (2013) using the primary structural deficit ratio less one‑off transactions. The subject of the research were only EU countries in which episodes of fiscal consolidation in the years 1981–2008 were identified. Spearman’s correlation was applied. The hypothesis was put forward: “the greater the scale of changes in the primary structural deficit, the greater the tax efficiency”. Spearman’s correlation for these variables was positive, statistically significant and moderate in strength. This means that consolidation activities do not have to reduce the ratio of tax revenues to GDP. This is an incentive for the Polish government to make a greater effort to reduce the budget deficit.