Slovakia could increase its revenue from the value added tax (VAT) by some €1 billion through more efficient collection and streamlined VAT collection and for that reason the justice and finance ministries are jointly working on a draft revision to the VAT law to eliminate fraud, the SITA newswire wrote. The amendment is ready for submission to a cabinet session and has a proposed effective date of October 1, 2012.
The Finance Ministry stated that the exact financial impact of the measure cannot be quantified over individual years because "their positive impact on the state budget fully depends on the approach and capability of the tax administration to apply them".
The amendment will introduce tougher penalties for firms that may evade VAT payer registration, extend the power of the tax office to cancel VAT registration in justified cases, and modify guarantees for refunds of VAT payments to eliminate taxable transactions whose only objective is to abuse the law and claim illegal refunds.
The amendment would also introduce a duty to register the purchase of a used motor vehicle from other EU-member countries and electronically submit the files to a tax office. "The reason is that during the subsequent sale of these vehicles in Slovakia tax frauds and evasions occur," stated the ministry, as quoted by SITA.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
