Among the numerous financial burdens of natural and legal entities, non-tax and parafiscal levies certainly occupy a significant place, and these levies represent an issue faced by the professional and scientific community. The main aim of this paper is to determine the conceptual differentiation between non-tax levies and parafiscal levies, and to investigate the attitudes of agricultural holdings regarding these levies and their impact on the agricultural sector. In order to go deeper into the research issues, specific goals are also defined in the paper. One of the specific goals is to determine whether non-tax levies have a negative impact on agricultural activity, while the other specific goal is to establish whether frequent changes in the legal and institutional framework of non-tax levies negatively affect the competitiveness of Croatian agriculture, and whether the structural reforms to date have affected the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. Empirical research was conducted on a sample of 197 agricultural holdings, and the obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistical analysis, multiple regression analysis and correlation analysis. The research results showed that non-tax levies have a negative impact on the development and representation of the agricultural sector in the economy) and that frequent changes in the legal and institutional framework of non-tax levies have a negative impact on the competitiveness of Croatian agriculture, as well as that structural reforms and measures to abolish or reduce non-tax levies have an effect on increasing competitiveness.