Business

Stricter Tax Controls: Minister Invites Tourists to Join Him in the Fight Against Tax Evasion

By 1 August 2015

Fancy a 15,000 kuna prize and a free holiday from the Croatian Minister of Finance? 

In addition to Croatian citizens who can already help in the fight against tax evasion, the Ministry of Finance has now decided to include foreign tourists as well, according to a report in Novi List on August 1, 2015. Project "Ask for a Receipt and Catch a Prize" gives a chance to Croatian citizens who collect twenty so-called fiscal receipts to win cash prizes up to 25,000 kuna and a holiday next year.

However, the Tax Administration has now devised a special project "Ask for a Receipt" which involves foreigners as well, who can win a holiday next year worth 15,000 kuna. Judging by what the finance minister Boris Lalovac said in Zadar, it is no wonder that he turned to foreign tourists to help him fight tax evasion. Lalovac said that he came to Zadar to see how the so-called receipt fiscalization works during the tourist season, since reports from the system show that the number of invoices throughout Dalmatia has decreased in comparison to last year.

"I was looking for some answers. We have more tourists than last year, so it would be expected to have more receipts as well", said Lalovac. Lalovac will discuss the issue with the heads of all the Tax Administration branches in Dalmatia.

Based on the information from the Tax Administration, in July a total of 241,079,865 receipts has been issued in the whole of Croatia, while last year there were 233,154,264 receipts. The total value of the receipts has increased by 108 million kuna, and in July of this year reached 16,681 billion kuna.

During the whole of last year, the system recorded 2,350 billion receipts, which is six percent, or 150 million receipts, more than in 2013. However, in August and other "tourist months", July and September, businesses issued slightly fewer receipts than in 2013, which was the first year of fiscalization.

Tax Administration also presented the results of the fiscalization by comparing tax forms for small legal entities and individuals, including from hospitality industry, who in 2014 reported an increase of 14.67 percent in taxable activities. There were 7.4 billion of them more than in 2012, before the fiscalization system was instituted.

Search