NEWS | SDC

March 21, 2016

AUSTRIA: Mandatory cash register rule is not in breach of Constitution

The Constitutional Court of Austria has ruled that the reservations submitted by various companies in respect of the mandatory cash register rule prove to be unfounded, and the Court has therefore rejected the petitions filed. Since the mandatory cash register rule is thus not in breach of the Constitution, there is no requirement for any legal amendments on the part of the legislator. All terms of the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code regarding the matter of cash registers remain in force.

March 17, 2016

SLOVAKIA: Loopholes in oversight allow fiscal device fraud

The use of illegally modified cash registers deprives the state of €300-400m in tax revenue annually, estimates taxman’s FS president František Imrecze. The modified fiscal cash registers are programmed to ignore saving some receipts, thus underreporting sales. Imrecze says the volume of this tax fraud has been falling recently, but there are still producers and service firms that organize this.

This wouldn’t be surprising if Slovakia was not one of the countries which introduced fiscalization to combat tax evasion, starting from March 1st 2009. Their choice of legislative concept and technology was obviously wrong.

February 26, 2016

CZ: EET = Electronic Evidence of Taxes

After 236 days of resistance from the opposition parties, the ruling coalition voted in Czech parliament’s lower chamber, new fiscal law named EET / Electronic Evidence of Taxes /, which regulates the cash sale of goods and services. Now it must be approved by the Senate and signed by the president of the Czech Republic. In the Senate, the ruling coalition has a majority and president Milos Zeman was in favor of this law from the beginning.

Opposition parties are not satisfied with the way it came to this decision, they will make its protest at the Constitutional court. “The law was violated as debate was stopped, many members could not come out and express themselves, ” opposition said at a press conference.

February 25, 2016

INDIA: tax evasion and tax avoidance in Kerala

Random assessments conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General in 443 units in the state during 2014-15 has revealed an under-collection of Rs 5,141 crore (=748,101,451,333.52 USD).

The principal accountant-general (economic and revenue sector audit), Mr Amar Patnaik, said that the incidence of evasion seen during the audit period was “the highest ever”. The short collection of VAT alone (after assessing only 169 offices of the Commercial Sales Tax Department) has been pegged at Rs 1,771.71 crore.

February 20, 2016

Greece tax evasion: New digital services to tackle the issue

Greek government is installing 400,000 ‘Point of Sale’ software systems – computerised cash registers that provide sophisticated financial, sales and inventory reports. These are designed to be compatible with the EU’s Digital Single Market (DSM) policy, and to minimise the opportunities for tax fraud. The government also plans to apply the new OECD Standard for Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters during 2016: participant countries will cooperate online, notifying tax authorities of assets held or payments made connected with accounts exceeding USD$250,000.