In both former Yugoslav republics, now separate sovran states Serbia and Montenegro, almost at the same time the news broke out about the government intent to upgrade existing fiscal law to the online model, which has triggered public debate in local media, mostly waged by the people working in the production, distribution and maintenance of fiscal devices.
Success story of the online system in Croatia has caught attention of their neighbouring governments, who truly believe that small investment of such kind can produce significant fiscal impact. Others (industry) argue that success of the Croatian model is quite commercialised and exaggerated, and that investment is not only burdening taxpayers with significant cost of POS modification and Internet fees, but also Croatian Revenue Authority has seen an increase in the cost of audits. Who is right and who is wrong?
Croatia reported additional revenue in the first implementation year (2012/2013) to be more than 35%. Both Serbia and Montenegro had reported even bigger surplus in their budget at the time of their implementation of the current system which works in the offline regime. One can conclude that any kind of technical solution introduced to prevent tax fraud can yield positive fiscal impact, so the only remaining question is whether the solution is sustainable enough that it can be continuously improved to follow technological advancements.
Arguments coming from the fiscal device vendor warn government to re-think about upgrading to online system, because the existing one can be simply improved. Business associations are only concerned if government will produce new expenses with requirements to meet compliance of the new invoicing regime, so they are also requesting revision of the existing system rather than complete change to the Croatian model.
