Which Croatian companies are mentioned in "Panama Papers"?
The Ministry of Finance said on Monday that it was closely following the events related to the "Panama Papers" and that it was taking all lawful measures and actions related to the information about possible connections with Croatian companies or Croatian citizens, reports seebiz.eu on April 4, 2016.
The large operation of investigative journalists, which revealed that 140 world leaders, football stars and rich individuals have been hiding money in tax havens, drew worldwide interest on Monday. Many countries have announced that their tax authorities have started investigating the issue. According to media reports, there are three Croatian companies being mentioned.
"We still have not seen which companies are mentioned. Our Finance Ministry has departments which will check it and if it is confirmed, we will communicate it to the public. I have still not discussed it with the Minister, but there is an office which exists precisely for situations like these", said Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković.
Croatia's Finance Ministry did not want to reveal any details invoking the principle of tax secret. According to the General Tax Law, the tax authority is obliged to keep as a secret all data that the taxpayer presents during the tax proceedings and any other information concerning the tax status.
The Ministry added that the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering, as the Croatian financial intelligence unit, in the course of its work regularly obtains banking, personal and intelligence information from Croatia and abroad.
In accordance with international standards and the provisions of the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, "the operations of the Office are secret and the Office is not authorized to publicly disclose any information, data and documentation obtained in accordance with the provisions of the Law", said the Ministry in a statement.
