Koprivica filed a complaint against the owner of Bemax: Mafia exposed, they activate sleepers to overthrow the Government and return DPS

Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica filed a criminal complaint against the owner of Bemax on suspicion of tax and contribution evasion.

As he announced, he submitted an initiative to the Tax Administration to start the tax control procedure of the owner of Bemax and the company.

"Today we are proving and prosecuting what everyone has known, heard and seen for years - the blatant robbery of the budget of the citizens of this country. Today we are opening a new chapter in the fight against corruption - we are knocking on the last floor of the corruption pyramid. The first tenant is Bemax, but next week we will also open the remaining doors ", Koprivica said, the Government announced.

Koprivica stated that Veselin Kovačević, the previous owner of the company Bemax, and Ivan Ubović, son of Ranko Ubović, signed a contract on the transfer of ownership on July 1, 2022 at a price of 750 euros.

"The contract states that Kovačević founded the company with an initial investment of only 12.000 euros in January 2007, as well as that he subsequently paid an additional investment of 300.000 euros and transferred non-monetary funds of 437.800 euros to it, making the total investment 749.800 euros. , and by law it is calculated as the purchase price - the value of the founding stake at the time of establishment increased by the amount of the capital increase," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

If the difference between the sale price and the purchase price is positive, he added, it is a capital gain on which the tax rate is applied.

"In this case, when the so-called purchase price of 750.000 euros is subtracted from the selling price of 749.800, it follows that Kovačević earned 200 euros by selling the company Bemax, which according to the law on personal income tax represents his capital gain that is subject to taxation. So, the budget On the basis of this transaction, Montenegro earned a total of 30 euros, because the applicable tax rate at that time was 15 percent.

Koprivica announced that according to the official financial reports, Bemax had fixed assets worth 2021 million euros at the end of 120, the total capital of the company was estimated at 142 million euros, and the company also had net retained earnings from previous years in the amount of 141 million euros.

"Bemax achieved a net profit of 2021 million euros in 14, and a net profit of 2020 million euros in 27,5. This all says that Kovačević sold his company for less than 1 percent of its real value, i.e. total capital. That is, the value for which the company was sold is only 5 percent of its last year's net profit," said Koprivica.

He adds that "the sales price clearly stated in the contract is a fake sale price, artificially reduced in order to pay as little as possible to the state in the name of taxes".

"Therefore, if he had sold the company at the value of 142 million euros, at which its capital was estimated just six months earlier in the balance sheet he submitted to the Revenue and Customs Administration, the tax would have amounted to 12,8 million euros. It is Bemax's patriotism that means that the state is paid 30 euros, instead of 12,8 million euros, that is, those who made the most profit paid the least. Why did the owners of Bemax engage in this operation of blatant falsification of the sales price, in order to pay less tax to the state? They knew about one weakness of the tax law, which It is not accidental, but intentionally left. Namely, in the case of the sale of real estate, motor vehicles and the like, the tax laws provided the possibility for the competent tax authority to assess their sale price and determine the real market value. Only in the case of the sale of shares and shares in a company they did not foresee the possibility," said Koprivica.

A solution to protect the budget, as he states, also exists in this case.

"Due to the existence of this type of abuse, which represents the robbery of the state budget, in December 2022, in the Parliament, we adopted amendments to the Law, which enabled the Tax Administration to check the calculation of capital gains tax when transferring shares in companies for the past 5 years. More precisely, with the changes in question, the competent tax authority has the right to determine the true sales value of shares in the company when the nominal value is lower than the market value. In the process of adopting this norm, the public interest is determined and therefore it can have a retroactive effect, which is allowed by the Constitution suppression of abuses that occur when the seller and buyer of shares in the company agree on a sale price that is lower than the market price, thus causing damage to the state budget in the public interest, the damages suffered by the budget of Montenegro due to the abuses in question are eliminated".

Kpprica stated in a statement that "the mafia has been exposed".

"That's why they are activating the sleepers to overthrow the 44th Government and bring back the DPS. Our response must be clear and decisive. It is an obligation even according to August 30, to fight against all forms of injustice. The fight against financial machinations, circumvention of the law, corruption and crime of our are key obligations and basic goals, and on that path we will make maximum efforts, with the aim of overall reform of the system," concluded Koprivica.