The community of municipalities submitted amendments to two laws

In order to improve and protect the financial sustainability of local self-governments, the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro (ZOCG) has submitted to the State Parliament proposals for amendments to two legal texts that will be considered by the deputies at the plenum on August 30 - Proposal for a Law on Amendments to the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Proposal for the Law on the write-off of interest on overdue tax liabilities, it was announced by the ZOCG.

"With the amendment to the Bill on Amendments to the Personal Income Tax Act, ZOCG wants to ensure that the determined percentage of the entire state income is transferred to local self-governments on this basis, including the part from the expansion of the tax scope, which is foreseen by the new legal solution". it is stated in the announcement.

They said that the draft law foresees the expansion of the scope of taxes by determining two new revenues - from the Internet and video games, as well as from games of chance, with the fact that everything collected on that basis goes exclusively to the state budget.

"By adopting the amendments of the Community of Municipalities, it would be possible for local governments to receive part of these revenues in the same way and according to the same key that they receive from income based on the income tax of natural persons generated on other grounds. To remind, the Law on Financing of Local Self-Government as a systemic law, it predicted that 40 percent of these revenues will go to the municipalities of the coastal and central regions, 89 percent to the municipalities of the northern region, and 11 percent to the Equalization Fund," the announcement reads.

The ZOCG says that the bill on the write-off of interest on overdue tax liabilities establishes the right to write-off interest for a taxpayer who has a recorded tax debt and who settles it within the deadline set by law, as well as a tax debtor whose tax debt has been rescheduled in accordance with the Reprogramming Law tax claim and the Regulation on the conditions for deferring the collection of tax and non-tax claims.

"Taking into account that the Law on Reprogramming of Tax Receivables expressly excludes the possibility of reprogramming municipal tax obligations, as well as that this Proposal for a Law on Write-Off of Interest on Due Tax Obligations does not define the rights of local self-governments, the Union of Municipalities concludes that those placed in a disadvantageous position in relation to on other taxpayers, since there is no possibility of write-off of interest on their due tax debts on any basis. That is why an amendment was proposed, which puts municipalities, that is, their companies and institutions in an equal position with all other taxpayers in terms of the right to write-off interest," said ZOCG.

"Its adoption would significantly contribute to the improvement of the financial situation of municipalities and the legal basis for the contractual regulation of interest write-offs under the same conditions as for other taxpayers would be removed," states the explanation of the amendment signed by the general secretary of the Union of Municipalities, Mišela Manojlović.