Adoption of the Law on Amendment to the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, no. 95/2018)
Last week Serbian Parliament adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration (hereinafter: The Law), which introduced the following important changes in Serbian legal system regarding tax procedure and administration.
The most important change is the removal ofall provisions regulating games of chance from the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration, since State administration, more precisely, Tax Authority is not any more competent for games of chance, but the newly established authority called Administration for Games of Chance. In that manner, all relevant procedures related to games of chance, as well as offences, are now prescribed by the Law on Games of Chance.
The next important change relates to the question of tax assessment and situations in which taxpayer does not submit a tax return. According to the new changes, tax authority may issue a tax assessmentwithout taxpayer’s prior declaration in respect of the circumstances which would be relevant for establishing his or her tax liability. In that situation, the tax assessment will bebased on the records kept with the relevant authorities. It is important to emphasize that in practise, due to its general application, this rulewill probably be primarily applied in the cases of property tax assessment or tax on transfer of ownership.
At the end, the list of the relevant authorities which areobliged to submit the informationwithin their competencewhich aresignificant for tax assessment, collection and control has been expanded and now includes also territorially autonomous authorities and local government, public enterprises, legal entities and private individuals granted with public authority, such as notaries.
The Law willenter into force on 24th December 2018, while its implementation will commence on 1st March 2019.
If you have any questions or need further information please contact Nataša Sarić, Associate at natasa.saric@zslaw.rs or any of your regular contacts at Živković Samardžić.