SDC, Author at SDC

February 25, 2023

Slovenia: Should the fiscal lottery be renewed?

Last year (2022) was economically more stronger for Slovenia compared to the year 2021, partly because the measures against covid weakened, especially in the service sector. That is why the Government was surprised by the information that the number of digitally signed invoices in 2022 is 8.9% lower than in the previous year. This is especially pronounced in construction and service industries (restaurants, hairdressers, flower sales, etc.). Although the number of taxpayers decreased by 1.6% compared to the previous year, as the main reason for it was assigned to the decision of the previous Government of the Republic of Slovenia in January 2021 to abolish the obligation of every customer to request and receive a fiscal invoice. In this sense, the idea of re-introducing the article in VAT law is being considered, by which the buyer who the inspection find did not take over the invoice is fined with a fine of EUR 40.

December 30, 2022

Spain cuts VAT

On December 27, 2022, the Spanish government announced a new package of inflation-relief measures which will reduce, and even remove, VAT on many essential food items. The reduced rates are going to be in place from January 1 until June 30, 2023.

The VAT cuts are introduced for the following items:

Basic food (such as milk, bread, fruits and vegetables, eggs, cheese, etc.) – rate is reduced from 4% to 0%
Oil and pasta – rate is reduced from 10% to 5%

December 6, 2022

Finland: warning signals taxi driver’s control by Vero Skatt

This September, the Tax Administration of Finland (Vero Skatt) carried out an action to check compliance of taxi drivers in the context of tax obligations (fiscalization). The action included 850 taxpayers and the potential loss (non-recording cash payment, unaccounted revenue, undeclared pay) was uncovered in the amount of 16 million euros. This is a large amount for this sector of taxpayers and for a relatively short period and relatively small sample.

September 7, 2022

Fiscalization in Montenegro switched to analog due to cyber hack

End of August 2022, the websites of the Montenegrin Government’s ministries, revenue and customs were compromised by an unknown hacker(s). No official announcement was made of the damage caused by this act, including data loss, as the team of forensics is still conducting an investigation.

July 31, 2022

Fiscalization No.2 in Serbia

On May 1 this year, Serbia replaced the two-decade-old fiscalization system. This old system was based on fiscal memory and paper journal. Serbia was the first to introduce an advanced solution in 2004 that was able to transfer data from the fiscal memory to the tax administration server via a GPRS modem.

The new, modern, fiscalization system was implemented in a short period of 6 months. About 240,000 sales locations have been fiscalized so far.

July 31, 2022

Fiscalization must not be a political issue

At the July session, the Czech Parliament voted to STOP fiscalization (EET-Electronic records of sale) in the Czech Republic from January 2023. From the beginning, this project has been marked by a political struggle with great resistance from the opposition parties, which today form the majority in the parliament.

EET started to apply on 1 December 2016 for restaurants and accommodation facilities.

May 29, 2020

COVID-19 and Fiscalization

Very soon after the official announcement of the virus COVID 19, it was clear that its consequences, in addition to the medical ones, would greatly affect the economies of all countries in the world. The rapid spread of the infection around the world has led to quarantines of various forms and levels as well as a reduction and very often a complete cessation of production.

The immediate consequence of reduced production is a drop in collected taxes and an increase in the number of unemployed. Taxes are certainly the biggest input to the budgets of both the state and local areas. Employers have found themselves in a situation where they cannot pay salaries nor taxes.

The first and most frequently mentioned words related to the tax policy of each country in the previous period are “DELAY” and “MEASURES.”

Measures include:

up to X months’ delay on VAT payments
extending VAT returns and payments to month X
delaying VAT returns for small businesses
providing VAT payment break till end of month X for small enterprises.
postponements on returns.
relief for small VAT payers. Limited VAT reliefs
VAT credit refunds and suspension of penalties.
providing VAT filing and payments delays
reporting period changes or payment delays.
exempting small taxpayers from VAT
delaying VAT filings by XX days
VAT rate cut for COVID crisis
VAT rate cut on hospitality services will be from X% to Y%
Discounts on VAT payments
increasing VAT credit limit.

How Covid 19 Influenced the Fiscalization Process

October 8, 2019

EET in the Czech Republic is ending its third year

In previous article called “fiscalization slowed“, we mentioned that there has been a slowdown in the process of fiscalisation in the Czech Republic. Groups 3 and 4 had to wait for the fiscal law to be modified in order for them to be fiscalized. New Fiscal Law’s amendment passed the parliamentary procedure on 15.09.2019.

Groups 3 and 4 starts at the same time 1.May 2020.

Taxes for some individual activities covered by groups 3 or 4 are reduced from 21% to 10% to make fiscalisation more efficient (hairdressing and barbers’ services, bicycle repair, footwear, clothing and textile repair and repair, and draft beer sales, ….).

July 3, 2019

Slovakia – online fiscal receipts starting July 2019

As announced in our previous News post (Slovakia: Virtual cash register -EKAS), in Slovakia, all fiscal cash registers must switch to online mode by the July 1. With this date, every taxpayer who did not register with the Tax Administration and took over the cash register code would be penalized. This is the biggest reform in Slovakia since introduction of the fiscal law in 1995.

By mid-June, the number of downloaded cash register codes was about 208,000, which is 85% of the expected number of fiscal devices. But as the number of taxpayers, manufacturers and services that did not prepare in time were great, a concession was made and at the last moment, an annex that moves the deadline for the end of the year came into force. Also as help, Call center advising taxpayers has extended their working hours.

May 20, 2019

Vending machines – can they issue fiscal receipts? Why not.

One jurisdiction is currently preparing amendments to the fiscalization law with the desire to expand the list of taxpayers who must issue fiscal receipts. The inclusion of the owner of the vending machines on the VAT payer’s list that should be fiscalized has caused quite a lot of discussion through the media. The proposer of the law amendment in the reasoning of its offer states that the sale through vending machines is increasing from year to year, many of these machines are not registered and most owners of the machines are not declaring sales.

Opponents of the amendment suggest that no manufacturer of the vending machines supports fiscalization anywhere in the world because there is no technical possibility to upgrade the machine in such way to suite requirements. However the proposer remains on track with one concession to prolong deadline for implementation. The year 2021 is the year when all the vending machines will have to issue fiscal receipts and be connected to the tax administration server in Croatia.