Un repaso de las opciones tributarias de los Gobiernos Subnacionales y del Sistema de Coparticipación en el actual escenario federal

This paper reviews the “two libraries” on the theory of fiscal federalism and characterizes the Argentine federalism in a comparative international scenario. Aiming to a further decentralization, the proposals that were widely discussed during the 90’s are reviewed: the options for indirect and direct taxes, how these alternatives are used by national, provincial and municipal government levels in Argentina, the problems of tax overlapping among those levels, dealing with tax incidence, and the inevitable vertical pecuniary externalities. In the more specific section referred to the design of subnational tax system, a review of author's proposals about taxation on transactions, income and patrimonial taxes, are analyzed. In the first case, the virtues of combining the National VAT with the provincial RST; in the second case, the introduction of an subnational income tax, or a flat-tax by provinces; and, the proposition to definitely decentralize patrimonial taxation to provinces. Finally, the proposal for a new financial and federal tax treaty, also advanced in the 90’s, , that from author point of view, it’s still valid to be discussed at present.