Tax Alert, November 2019

We hereby wish to inform you that draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration (the Law), is currently in procedure before the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and it is intended to enter into force within 8 days of its publication in the RS Official Gazette.

The overview of the aforementioned amendments will be presented in a more detail below. For any questions regarding the application of the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration, please contact Slobodanka Kolundzija, LL.M. our Manager in Tax Department via: skolundzija@deloittece.com.

The most important changes are presented below:

·        A taxpayer – natural person is obliged to submit the decision from the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia on determined right to refund the pension and disability insurance contribution along with the request for refund of overpaid or incorrectly paid contributions for pension and disability insurance.

·        It is stipulated that in case of a taxpayer's bankruptcy carried out by reorganization, the manner of tax claim settlement and the measures of realization of the reorganization plan cannot be set contrary to the provisions of the Law and other tax legislation.

·        It is determined that a by-law will be adopted which will regulate the procedure, manner, deadlines, content and form of the return by which a taxpayer will submit the information on all business premises and premises in which he conducts business to the competent Tax Administration. The by-law should be adopted 60 days from the day the Law enters into force.

·        The Business Registers Agency may not modify data pertaining to a business entity founder, if а new founder is at the same time the founder of another business entity whose TIN has been temporarily suspended in accordance with this law, due to illegal business activities or outstanding tax liability.

·        The volume of data that banks shall submit to the Tax Administration is increasing, thus, it is stipulated that, at the request of the Tax Administration, the bank is obliged to submit in electronic form data on current account turnover and balance and data on saving deposits of taxpayers - legal entities, entrepreneurs and individuals, deposits of taxpayers - legal entities, or the numbers of current accounts and saving deposits of taxpayers - individuals as well as the name of the banks that keep them.

·        The following provisions regarding the submission of tax acts have been amended:

·        If a tax act is delivered by sending registered mail, it shall be considered delivered on the delivery date. If a taxpayer is not located at the address of his head office entered in the prescribed registered or at the particular address for mail receipt registered with the Business Registers Agency or at the address entered in the last tax return, the tax act shell be considered delivered on the 3rd day from the day of its delivery to the post office (unlike the previous solution where this deadline was 15 days).

·        It is envisaged that а tax act may be submitted electronically via Tax Administration portal, as well as for informing a taxpayer via a unique electronic mailbox.

·        A tax act may be delivered to the natural person electronically if the taxpayer agrees to this manner of delivery. In situations when the tax act is delivered via Tax Administration portal, such document shell be considered delivered on the day of posting it to the portal of Tax Administration. A tax act that is passed by the competent authority of the local self-government unit may be submitted in a form of an electronic document via single electronic mailbox in accordance with the regulations governing electronic documents.

·        Tax Administration options were expanded in relation to the previous measures of securing tax payments, stating that in addition to the existing ban on the disposal of movable and immovable property, the Tax Administration may establish a ban on the funds disposal concerning taxpayer's business accounts, monetary and non-monetary claims, as well as a ban on funds disposal concerning current and savings accounts.

·        Certain changes have been made to the penal provisions in order to align them with other changes to the Law (such as anticipating penalties for banks that do not submit required information to the Tax Administration, etc.).