On January 1, Montenegro enters a new system of fiscalization. Because it is completely electronic, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Tax Administration (TA), partly also the economy, assure that in the future it will contribute to the acceleration of digitization itself. The current dilemmas are whether there is enough time to get the system on its feet and that, without exception, all taxpayers are ready to start applying - January 2021, XNUMX. The dilemma of part of the public is also whether e-fiscalization will really force someone to knock and issues a fiscal invoice, if the consumer, the one who pays, does not care if he does not receive a fiscal invoice for the paid service, even years after their issuance began in Montenegro.
The application of the Law on fiscalization in the circulation of products and services was supposed to start on January 1, 2020, but it was extended to 2021 because the tender procedure for the procurement of the system was not completed last year. This year, say the authorities, is different.
"The first of January is the big bang," said Dejan Abazović, director of the IT sector in PU, for "Vijesti", reminding that the postponement of the start of the implementation of the law can only happen if the Government proposes its changes, and the Parliament then adopts it.
"We don't think about it, nor is it our job," says Abazović.
Is there enough time
Abazović and representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Darko Čabarkapa and Bojana Bajić, say that so far all deadlines have been met for the implementation of the Law to begin on January 1. Interlocutors of "Vijesti" among the programmers who work on the development of software for electronic fiscalization (fiscal service) consider the deadlines for developing the program and testing the solution, which should be operational on the first day of 2021, to be problematic. The Chamber of Commerce (PKCG), from who at the end of last week requested that the implementation of the Law for retail sales begin on April 1, and for wholesale, where so-called non-cash invoices are issued, on October 1 of the following year.
The Tax Office provided access to the test environment for testing fiscal services on October 20, while the next phase was announced for November 2 - testing of the system for registration of taxpayers.
The founder of the company "Codingo" Ivan Radunović told "Vijesta" that "it seems that no one thought about the people who need to connect their applications to this system".
"Access documentation looks more like a scientific paper than functional API documentation. We have been given two months to test everything and put the programs into production, and not all the functions that allow us to do normal testing are ready yet. The time of two months would be fine if they had provided us with SDK packages for programming languages (NET, PHP, Java, Python,...), so that we can use them, this is how we have to do integrations at the lowest level, and time no", he said.
He adds that developers don't even have clear functional examples that work, and on the basis of which they can do their work.
"I'm talking about something that is standard, which is that the API code can be tested in the browser on the API owner's website. I see that other developers are also struggling with this and there is no company that has significantly advanced with the integration of this system. From the moment when everything is published and the new PU test portal (planned for November 2nd), I believe that a period of at least six months must be given for connecting and testing software solutions", said Radunović to "Vijesta".
Abazović says that he understands, but adds that everyone must stick to the deadline prescribed by law.
"We are not saying that it was enough time for them, the deadlines are not convenient for us or for them... As the director of the IT sector in PU, I understand the short deadlines for the implementation of their systems, but we have to stick to the law," he says. .
Čabarkapa adds that as far as the Ministry of Finance is concerned, "the country is ready".
"A chance for the IT industry"
E-fiscalization provides that all invoices issued - cash and non-cash, are recorded in the Tax database. Fiscalization of accounts is carried out by the fiscal service (software), through which taxpayers' devices (electronic billing device, ENU) communicate with the Tax Office. Taxpayers should register each device they use in that procedure with the Tax Administration. At the same time, these devices will have to be connected to PU electronically - via the Internet.
"ENU is everything that, using a constant Internet connection and an electronic certificate issued by one of the certification bodies in Montenegro, can send a message to the PU that the turnover of products and services has been achieved. We have not defined the appearance of ENU, it is only important what its output is and that the conditions for its use are met. The choice of platform, which operating system, whether it will be Android, iOS... for mobile devices... we didn't want to predict any of that, because we wanted to support the competitiveness and development of small businesses that support electronic fiscalization", said Chabarkapa.
For now, as they say in PU and MF, they have no data on which devices and platforms are preferred.
"We neither know, nor are we interested", they say and add that it is more important that the "system is open" and that it is possible to get more diverse solutions.
"This is important for the IT industry," they claim.
Čabarkapa adds that the size of the bill to be issued is not prescribed either.
"We only prescribed the elements that the invoice should contain, so it is not a problem to print it on A4 format," he says.
Upgrade for about 15.000 fiscal devices
In the current system of fiscalization, fiscal cash registers and fiscal printers are used, and there are 30.000 such devices, as the PU said. Interlocutors from the Ministry of Finance and PU assure that not all of these devices need to be discarded when the new system is implemented, and they estimate that 50 percent of those currently in use will be able to adapt to the new conditions. Fiscal cash registers will no longer be used, and eventual adjustment, says Čabarkapa, is possible with fiscal printers, devices with memory, which are connected to computers. Customizing those devices means they no longer store data in the future.
"The fiscal printer would no longer be a fiscal printer, but just a printer, without the obligation to record anything," says Abazović.
Čabarkapa says that the possible adjustment of the device for electronic fiscalization "must be in the relationship between the taxpayer and the distributor of fiscal cash registers, that is, printers."
"What cannot be adjusted for some reason, for small taxpayers who once invested money in the purchase of devices, as previously planned, will be appropriately subsidized - they will be given some form of assistance, deferred tax payment... We are talking about to the small taxpayer. A feasibility study says it costs up to 250 euros," he says.
Bajić adds that this is also at the level of supposition and that even they do not have the right assessment now. Abazović explains that this is because now they do not have devices "in accordance with the new system".
Which devices on the market will replace the existing ones, Abazović says, are defined by the manufacturers.
"Until now, there were five repairmen, and now anyone who wants to can make an electronic payment device, they just have to comply with what is provided by the specification. The market is now open and we have interest from large companies as well," says Abazović.
He adds that some of them are preparing solutions that will offer the end user "all in one".
"At the same time, give them an electronic payment device, with all content, printer, software, digital certificate, internet connection. They will offer to buy or lease, to pay in installments," said Abazović.
Equipment suppliers are (not) ready
When asked at what point someone who wants to enter the procedure of purchasing devices for the new fiscalization system will know what they actually need to buy and how many goods they need to order, Čabarkapa says that for them "what is happening on the market is an unknown", but that, according to unofficial information, "everyone is fully prepared for fiscalization as far as suppliers of electronic payment devices and software are concerned."
"On the first day, 40 manufacturers would not test messages, they are software manufacturers," he says.
Interlocutors from the Ministry of Finance and PU also say that, compared to the replacement price of 250 euros, as they say, where an upgrade is possible, it will cost less.
What does the transition to the new system look like?
Explaining what the transition from the existing system, which is valid and must be operational until December 31 at midnight, looks like to the new one, the application of which starts already on January XNUMX, Čabarkapa cites the example of a larger taxpayer, which has more payment devices.
"For example, on December 25, they will set aside a minimum number of cash registers and call the PU and the supplier of fiscal printers to defiscalize it," he says. Until then, it is necessary to prepare the charging devices for the future system. Čabarkapa says that large taxpayers with, say, 300 cash registers, can set aside a hundred a few days in advance, on which they will install software, upload the necessary data - ENU, PIBs, certificates, operators (employees who work on payment devices)...
"It can be done really quickly," he says.
The PU said that there is enough time to provide the necessary certificates, which the users do not have now.
They also add that those who are self-employed, about 8.000 of them, who are registered as natural persons, but are tax and fiscally liable, can register with a new identity card, which, in addition to a digital certificate for identification, also contains a qualified certificate for electronic signature .
Chain of responsibility
In the new fiscalization system, everyone and everything must be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And when updating, upgrading.
On the question of the security of the device that will be used for the billing procedure, Abazović says that the communication with the Tax Office is safe, because the channel through which that communication is carried out is "absolutely protected".
"Everything else is up to the end users, it's up to them how they're going to provide it," he said.
Interlocutors who deal with software development and maintenance, however, consider the way in which the issue of responsibility is regulated to be problematic.
"The software maintainer cannot ensure that the user on the computer does not damage the operating system or the database, nor can he maintain the hardware of the thermal printer, because he is not an equipment repairer," one of them said, among other things, to "Vijesti".
PU and MF claim that all scenarios are foreseen by the regulations.
"Here, everyone has to work in real time - both taxpayers, telecom operators, PU, software manufacturers and those who maintain the software. If there is no internet connection, we know who is responsible, the telecom operator. When the first lawyer calls him to court, he will think about the quality of the service," says Čabarkapa, with the belief that e-fiscalization will affect all those who offer services and raise their quality.
He adds that there is a regulation that defines the conditions for disconnection of the Internet connection and that only the Agency for Electronic Communications can determine whether and under what conditions the disconnection occurred. The minimum prescribed Internet speed on the taxpayer's side is 128 kilobits per second.
"Wherever you can send an SMS, you can also send a message from the taxpayer to the Tax Office," says Čabarkapa.
He adds that the invoice can be issued even without a constant internet connection, but that the fiscalization must be done within 48 hours.
"If there is no internet connection, and the telecom operator will not complete the work, a smart taxpayer will take the device and put it in the first place where the internet is available, after which the device will send all invoices generated up to that point to the Tax Office," he says.
Abazović adds that other situations, such as device failure, are recognized by regulations.
He also said that the system makes it possible to monitor the unusual behavior of end users in the sense that inspection controls are carried out on the basis of a random sample, but on purpose.
"The inspector will go where the system tells him that something is suspicious," he says.
"Nothing will be the same again"
Abazović and his colleagues from the Ministry of Finance, Čabarkapa and Bajić, claim that after the introduction of electronic fiscalization - nothing will be the same again, because from January 1, all business systems will communicate with the state, that is, PU, via the Internet, electronically. "All this without using paper," explains Abazović.
That is why, as he says, there is no reason that, once a system is established in which the economy and the state communicate in that way, businessmen should not communicate with each other in the same way. It is new, as they said, because Montenegro will for the first time introduce a register of producers, software and those who maintain the software.
"We hope that finally order will be introduced in which software is used by users. Now we don't have a certification system and the question is what kind of programs are being made. Every software upgrade has to be reported, so that if arbitration happens, we have access to it," explains Bajić.
It is also prescribed that only those who are taxpayers in Montenegro register as software producers.
"What we don't have at the moment is an accreditation body that can certify houses, that will certify software that works in accordance with certain legal solutions - for fiscalization, bookkeeping... We are now asking the authors to register the software, but not certify it, but for the first time we will arrive at a list of software solutions, for which we will have the basis to later analyze and evaluate the software market and the state of the ICT sector in Montenegro in general", says Abazović.
He also said that the introduction of e-fiscalization showed that there are a large number of companies outside of Montenegro that provide services to users in Montenegro, "without having a registered company or office, but they do not have a single support person".
The reason for this, he said, is that the Montenegrin ICT sector has been based on a "trade" instead of a "production" model for years.
Gray area still in the gray area?
The fiscalization system that Montenegro is introducing on January 1, among the countries of the region, is that of Croatia and Slovenia, with the difference, says Abazović, that the Montenegrin system includes both cash and non-cash payments. From the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, even when the Law was in the form of a Draft, 2018, they wrote that, when Croatia and Slovenia are cited as examples of good practice, it should be borne in mind that those countries, unlike Montenegro, did not have previously regulated fiscalization system. In their comments on the Draft, they stated that in Croatia the system of introducing online fiscalization "did not stop the gray economy, but still avoids issuing fiscal invoices during the tourist season."
"It starts from the point of view that the introduction of online fiscalization in Croatia increased VAT registration by over seven percent, and this fact is not disputed. However, this is the first fiscalization system in Croatia. The introduction of fiscalization in Montenegro also increased the recording and reporting of VAT by over 30 percent. Which means that there was an increase in VAT reporting in both systems," the Institute states.
Tanja Smrekar, a journalist of the economics and finance magazine "Finance", told "Vijesta" that e-fiscalization in Slovenia has made the work of tax inspectors easier.
"If the tax inspector or the supervisor noticed on his computer that in some coffee shop no receipts were issued for some time or that many of them were reversed, it was easier to target where supervision is necessary. "Due to greater supervision and fines, in practice it has been shown that taxpayers issue more invoices, there is less illegal work, gray economy and more VAT collected," she says.
He adds, however, that this did not bring better payment for construction workers, plumbers, home craftsmen...
"The tax inspector cannot come to your private apartment, except with a court order," she said.
Unofficially, her colleagues from Slovenia also say that there is no mechanism that introduces the obligation to issue invoices. According to Radunović, this problem will not be solved in Montenegro either.
"People and businesses that are completely in the gray zone will still not be recognized by inspections and PU. No positive effect is achieved there," he says. The Ministry of Finance and PU say that in the future the payer will be able to check the fiscal invoice issued to him on the Tax website.
The responsibility to insist that a fiscal bill be issued to them at all with the purchased goods or services, with all the digitization, is once again - on the citizens.
When they read all the cash registers, they expect someone outside of Montenegro to buy them
When the number of active fiscal cash registers is known on January 90st, there is a XNUMX-day deadline for them to be defiscalized, that is, for these devices to be read in relation to the period when the cash register ceased to be a fiscal device. Only after that, the cash registers can be turned off and put out of use.
"The taxpayer only fulfilled his obligation to the PU at that moment, and everything that was in his cash registers, all the data, will be stored in the PU system," says Čabarkapa.
Abazović adds that, in order for the complete normative-legal framework to be closed in this sense, it is necessary to pass a decree on defiscalization:
"Which will be adopted and adopted very soon".
When asked what to do with the discarded fiscal cash registers, which so potentially represent electronic waste, Abazović said that service providers who delivered such devices "will certainly find a way to withdraw them and place them on markets outside Montenegro, which have the same fiscal system as ours currently." .
"Those that are functional and at the technological level to meet the elementary needs of fiscalization, as it is in the environment, will certainly not be thrown away," he said.
Radunović: Bad for new businesses, internet business
Radunović said that the conditions for electronic fiscalization will affect especially new businesses, because initial costs are rising.
"Whether the business works or not, it will have to pay a subscription for the Internet, software, certificate. All this falls on the burden of people who have been working legally until now, and I believe that they will drive some of the businessmen who were thinking about legalizing their business into the gray zone. Probably the people who proposed this solution thought it was a good idea and had no bad intentions. The problem is that they have no contact with real business and do not know what barriers currently exist and how difficult it is to run a business in Montenegro. And with each new levy or obligation, instead of reducing the gray area, they work directly on its growth," he said.
It also raises the question of the impact on internet business.
"Because every account must be fiscalized. I assume that this will further discourage electronic payment systems from entering our market, because they have no interest in connecting their systems with our PU due to the size of the market," says Radunović.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
