Some changes in Croatian bureaucracy to benefit businesses at the expense of public notaries.
There are few entrepreneurs who would support frequent changes in the legislative framework, but several of the legal changes which come into force today will be good news for them and bad news for public notaries and Narodne Novine (Official Gazette), since they will lose 50 million kuna in annual revenues, reports Vecernji List on November 1, 2015.
Starting tomorrow, the cost of liquidation of companies will decrease by 70 to 90 percent, and will cost 600 kuna for simple and 2,500 kuna for complex limited liability companies. In order to encourage entrepreneurship, about two years ago the state enabled the establishment of simple companies whose initial capital is only 10 kuna. So far, about 20,000 such companies have been established, with accompanying registration costs of just 800 kuna. Although that is an affordable price in relation to the costs of starting more complex limited liability companies, it has been proven to be quite expensive to get out of business, even for those companies which do not have a penny in debts or losses. The process of closing a company lasted for years, with mandatory fees reaching 8,000 kuna, not counting the costs of lawyers and consultants. Tomorrow, four changes to the law will come into force, which will significantly speed up the liquidation process and lower the costs of starting and liquidating such simple companies down to 600 kuna.
Mandatory fees for liquidation of complex companies are being lowered to 2,500 kuna, while the accompanying costs of establishing limited liability companies fall from 3,000 to 2,000 kuna. Most of that money goes to public notaries, the state and Narodne Novine. That public company will lose ten percent of its previous income, since now there is no obligation to announce the changes in the status of companies in the official gazette, Starting today, all of this information will be published on the website of the court registry. The Ministry of Justice points out that each year about 45,000 ads were published relating to the court registry, with prices ranging from 200 to 900 kuna.
The public notary fees have also been cut so, for example, the price of preparation and certification of various applications will drop from 3,000 to 1,000 kuna. Public notaries have fiercely lobbied against the legal changes, just like lawyers protested recently when their fees were also cut. Interestingly, the changes have been implemented by a justice minister who was a lawyer himself and who is expected to return to his previous profession once his ministerial term expires.
However, justice minister Orsat Miljenić says he is not afraid for his future. “I will not have to change my job for a long time, and as a minister I am obliged to protect the interests of citizens, which is precisely what I am doing”, Miljenić says.
Still, even though they lost some money with business fees, lawyers and public notaries will get more money from fees connected with the land registry. Starting on Monday, the land registry excerpts will be issued by attorneys and public notaries, but the prices of their services cannot be higher than the cost of current court fees for the same service, which stood at 20 kuna.
