Changes in Tax Procedure Law in Serbia

Amendments to the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration

On 26 November 2020, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted a set of amendments to tax laws, including the Law on Amendments to the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration.

Among the most important changes are the following:

• the taxation system in the Republic of Serbia also will include open-end investment funds, namely alternative investment funds, which do not have the status of a legal entity and are registered in the appropriate register in accordance with the law;
• the possibility of delivering a tax act in electronic form to a person who submits tax returns in electronic form via the E-government portal is introduced;
• Article 29, which refers to the obligations of bodies and organizations responsible for registry entry, has been additionally refined by adding a new paragraph referring to the prohibition of registration of shares or stocks in economic entities, i.e. establishment of new economic entities in cases when the person or entrepreneur over whom the measure referred to in paragraph 9 of this Article has been established;
• debtors whose obligation amounts to more than RSD 50 million will be given the opportunity to pay their debt by giving property under the conditions determined by the Government and only if there is an interest of the state to receive that property;
• the day of payment is considered to be the day of certification of agreement by which the decision of the Government was realized;
• redefined is the criminal offense of Unjustified disclosure of the amount for tax refund and tax credit as well as change of name to Tax fraud in connection with value added tax.

In light of the above, the goal of the latest amendments to the law is to relieve the Tax Administration and facilitate communication between taxpayers and tax authorities through further digitalization of the Tax Administration, as well to avoid unnecessary costs of forced collection by introducing the possibility to fulfill the obligation by giving the property instead of paying.