The municipality of Pljevlja should write off claims based on real estate tax for which all collection measures provided for by law have been used.
This is stated in the Report of the independent auditor on the proposal of the final budget account of the Municipality of Pljevlja for the last year, which was recently adopted by the councilors of the local parliament.
"Given that the records also contain claims dating from 2003 onwards, it is necessary for the Municipality to consider writing off claims for which all collection measures provided for by law have been used," the opinion of the independent auditor states.
The local administration did not answer "Vijesta" whether they will write off claims based on real estate tax and for what period they will do it.
The Law on Tax Administration stipulates that the right to tax collection expires within five years from the end of the year in which the tax was determined. In the same period, the right to collect interest and costs of the procedure expires. The statute of limitations for the right to collect tax is terminated by any official action taken by the tax authority. The statute of limitations does not run for the duration of the proceedings before the court or in the case when the taxpayer, a natural person, is outside Montenegro continuously for more than six months.
At the end of last year, the Municipality of Pljevlja had unpaid real estate tax claims in the amount of 10.066.681 euros.
Claims on this basis are more than one million euros higher than at the end of 2022, when they amounted to just over nine million euros.
Of the total amount of unpaid claims at the end of last year, about 3,9 million euros were owed by legal entities, and the majority by citizens of Pljevlja.
The company Vektra Jakić, whose production was stopped at the end of December 2,5, owes the most 2018 million euros, based on real estate tax.
The debt of Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja at the end of last year on the same basis amounted to 735.129 euros, Montenegro cement company owes 362.000 euros and Rudnik uglja 248.082 euros.
Of the total amount of unpaid receivables, 4,95 million euros refer to land tax, and 5,12 million euros to tax on construction land.
The Municipality said that last year they issued 36.268 tax rulings, of which 116 were for legal entities.
3,9 million euros were owed by legal entities, and the majority by citizens of Pljevlja
Last year, the municipality passed 51 decisions on forced collection of taxes, but the Local Public Revenue Administration did not carry out the forced collection procedure due to possible legal costs, given that the Constitutional Court abolished the Regulation on closer criteria and methodology for determining the market value of real estate in March last year.
On the basis of real estate tax, the Municipality of Pljevlja last year received almost two million euros from natural and legal persons, of which 1,5 million euros was related to the tax on construction facilities.
The local administration claims that the total income from real estate tax was achieved in the amount of 70 percent of the planned funds.
1,6 million euros of real estate tax was collected from legal entities, and less than four hundred thousand euros from citizens.
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