Although the Ministry of Finance, with the aim of suppressing the gray economy and increased tax collection, planned to replace fiscal cash registers from stores with electronic devices (computers) that would be connected to the Tax Administration (PU) from January 1 this year, so that before issuing each invoice, sellers the buyer asked for approval from the PU for that action, that solution did not take effect.
Why was the later proposal to replace the fiscal cash registers with computers from the department headed by Minister Darko Radunović not answered by "Vijesti", while the Employers' Union (UPCG) claims that the draft of the new law on fiscalization does not offer a solution to combat the key problem they have been pointing to for years, which is gray economy.
The procedure for replacing fiscal cash registers with computers is specified in the Draft Law on fiscalization in the circulation of products and services, the draft of which was put up for public discussion by the Ministry of Finance in September of last year. From UPCG, which is chaired by Predrag Mitrović, they said that according to their knowledge, after the public hearing and received comments and suggestions, the draft law was withdrawn for additional consideration and the final version is still being worked on.
"Establishing tax discipline, non-selectivity in the implementation of measures to achieve tax discipline and expanding the tax scope, was always on the list of priorities of the UPCG, as one of the basic prerequisites for reducing the fiscal burden on the economy. In this way, it would have a positive effect on the suppression of the gray economy and unfair competition, which would ultimately result in an improvement of the business environment. As representatives of the economy, we are aware that the existing method of fiscalization has not achieved the expected goal. This is not the fault of the fiscal devices that are in use, but the irresponsible behavior of certain business entities and all other actors, including the questionable competence of inspections, as well as the regulation in that area, which is incomplete and imprecise, and thus leaves room for manipulation. In this context, through the comments and suggestions on the Draft Law on Fiscalization that we submitted to the line ministry, we pointed out that the Draft Law on Fiscalization does not offer a solution to overcome the recognized deficiencies", they told "Vijesta".
UPCG emphasized that although one of the main motives of the law's proponents is to reduce the gray economy, all those who operate in the gray zone still remain outside the reach of the law.
"The draft does not offer a way to cover the turnover of products and services by entities that work outside of legal channels, so this law will also apply only to those that perform registered activities. We consider the proposed legal solution on the fiscalization of bank accounts to be very controversial and premature, since comparative practice does not know a similar solution. If there is no realistic possibility to check whether the invoice has been fiscalized immediately after issuing it, and with giratal accounts, due to the activity, method, form, place and time, date of issue, this is not possible, then what does the fiscalization of giratal invoices even mean? from UPCG.
Employers explain that the only justified reason for PU to have a review of gira invoices in real time is to prevent the issuance of fictitious invoices, and it is not disputed that such an occurrence should be minimized. However, UPCG's position is that solving that problem through fiscalization is too expensive, especially when there is an alternative solution that gives exactly the same effect, practically without any cost.
"Our proposal to solve that problem is to submit the books of incoming and outgoing invoices to PU on a monthly basis together with the VAT declaration. This is all the sooner, because PU cannot perform data analysis, i.e. matching of invoices, collected online before submitting the tax return, even according to the new proposed legal solution. The most important thing in everything is that taxpayers will not have additional and unnecessary costs, and PU will receive all the necessary data for matching invoices", said UPCG.
Cost to the state and employers
The application of the new legal solution will be an additional cost for taxpayers and the state, but for now there is no estimate of how much it will cost.
"We can say that if this legal solution remains, the costs will be significant, because the largest number of existing cash registers (over 60 percent of the cash registers currently in use) will have to be replaced in order to conform to the proposed fiscalization model." they said in UPCG.
As they added, from the moment they learned about the draft law, they indicated that their proposal implies that maximum results should be achieved with minimal changes, because the submission of books of received and issued invoices along with the regular submission of the VAT return provides the PU with the necessary data, but does not create any costs for taxpayers. and that GPRS enables the transmission of traffic in real time simultaneously with information on the number of active tax offices.
An expensive and technically poor solution is favored
The UPCG pointed out that in all the analyzes that were done and referred to by the proponent of the draft during the public debate, the claim is made that GPRS does not have the possibility of online data transmission, which, as we were informed by members of the UPCG who are professionally involved in the development of software solutions for fiscalization, is not correct information.
"This further raises the question - if, in addition to observing the use and effects of GPRS in the environment, an expert comparison of the GPRS data transmission system with online transmission was not carried out, why is a solution that is obviously technically worse and incomparably more expensive favored? The GPRS system in the environment is used to transfer daily conclusions, but the system can also be set up so that each invoice is transferred online after printing it on the fiscal device", pointed out the UPCG.
In UPCG, they agree that there is a need to upgrade and improve the existing fiscalization system to the greatest extent possible, but one should be aware that the solution given in the Draft Law, from the position of IT, is a solution that is subject to unfathomable manipulations.
"All the abuses that are happening even now, with the existing fiscal devices, are in fact of a different origin. There is not a single example of a double issued fiscal invoice, and all offenses are the result of the existence of double tax cash registers, which are used to issue invoices to customers/users of services (which contain all the necessary data as well as the real fiscal invoice), but the turnover recorded through those cash registers is not shown in the prescribed records and remains untaxed", said UPCG.
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