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.

Year	2021	2022	%
# of taxpayers	55.528	54.644	-1,6
# of invoices	1.003.014.313	913.848.520	-8.9

It is known that not issuing invoices is a big risk in tax evasion. Financial penalties for not issuing invoices or not accepting invoices are one of the methods of struggle. Penalties that must accompany this action requires the presence of a large number of tax inspectors in the field. But we should not forget that the method of invoice verification by scanning them is an effective way to replace a large number of inspectors in the field. Buyers thus become inspectors. Buyers should be encouraged to ask taxpayers for invoices and scan them. 

A gamification (lottery) organised by collecting (scanning) invoices is an effective way of stimulating buyers (for B2C transactions) to ask for the invoice. The Tax Administration of Slovenia organized the last such game in 2020. Surely the game should be more frequent, perhaps in a different modality. The prizes can be small, but there should be more of them, and such incentive should last continuously.