The Department of Revenue and Customs (UPC) has not yet decided whether all gaming operators should pay value added tax (VAT) on imported services.
At the end of last year, the UPC and the Ministry of Finance, while analyzing the business of the games of chance sector due to the preparation of a new law, discovered that the company "Vesuv" was the only organizer of games of chance that had been regularly paying this tax for years. For the past six years, "Vesuvius" paid three million euros into the state budget on this basis alone, while the other organizers did not even pay a euro, considering that they are not its debtors.
After "Vesuvius" received information that the others did not pay this tax, they sent letters to the Ministry of Finance and UPC in the beginning of the year, in which they asked for an explanation and an answer as to whether they should continue to pay tax on these services, and if not, whether they would be the prepaid amount is refunded or all other organizers will start paying it.
At that time, the company told "Vijesta" that they would continue to pay VAT on imported services as before, but that they were looking for answers from the authorities, which they have not yet received.
The UPC replied to "Vijesti" in May that they had initiated a supervisory procedure with the organizers in order to determine the status of this obligation, as well as that "the application of legal regulations will be uniform for all organizers of games of chance".
The institution has now told "Vijesta" that the supervisory procedure has not yet been completed and that it will have a position after its completion. In the meantime, "Vesuvius" remained the only organizer that reports and pays VAT on imported services.
Organizers of games of chance are not obliged to collect VAT because it is not calculated on payments for games of chance, but they pay VAT on the services and goods they buy, and from abroad (import) they most often acquire quotas and software for betting. However, here the allegedly disputed place of the performed turnover of the service is.
At the end of December last year, amendments to the Law on VAT were adopted, which stated, among other things, that the place of supply of services is considered to be Montenegro if the services are provided outside of Montenegro, and are actually used in Montenegro. It remains to finally resolve the dilemma of whether this change can apply to organizers of games of chance who purchase quotas and software abroad and use them to provide services in Montenegro.
It will depend on whether other organizers will start paying this tax or whether the state will return the amount paid to Vesuvius.
Bonus video:
