The Lipa Taxpayers Association wants the government to explain clearly to citizens what they should do regarding the provisionally delayed property tax.
The Lipa Taxpayers’ Association called on the government on Monday to provide to citizens clear and unambiguous information on filling in property tax questionnaires which have been sent out by some local government units. It also pointed out that the collection of data which is already in possession of public bodies was in collision with the provisions of at least three laws, reports Poslovni.hr on August 14, 2017.
The Association demands from the government, following the announcement by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković that there will be a delay in the introduction of the property tax, to provide to citizens in a clear and unambiguous way a notification whether they should fill in the property tax forms which have been sent out by local government units in recent days.
In its statement, the Association claims that many confused and concerned citizens and signatories of the petition against the introduction of the property tax have contacted them because it is not entirely clear what is now expected of them – whether there is still an obligation to fill in the questionnaires or not, given the notice issued by the Ministry of Finance on 11 August.
The Lipa Association warns that the collection of data which are already in possession of public bodies is in a collision with the provisions of at least three laws. “In accordance with Article 82 of the Law on State Administration System, the public administration must not seek facts (data) about which the official records are kept, but should obtain them from other bodies. Such provision conforms with Article 47 of the Law on General Administrative Procedure, which stipulates that officials will get the information themselves on the facts on which official records are kept by public bodies,” the statement reads.
Given that state databases should finally be digitised, the Association says that the Law on State Information Infrastructure is also relevant, given that in Article 10 it indicates that the public administration bodies are obliged to obtain and retrieve data from public registers ex officio, without demanding them from citizens or business entities.
Questionnaires which citizens have been receiving in recent days from local self-government units contain questions about the facts (data) which are kept in official records, and therefore Lipa considers such actions contrary to the law, the statement concludes.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced the delay in the introduction of the property tax last Tuesday. The tax was supposed to be implemented starting in January, but the Prime Minister said that the public was not informed well enough about all aspects of this tax.
Several days later, the Tax Administration announced that, regardless of the Prime Minister’s statement, local self-government units still needed to collect real estate data and update their databases for the collection of current public fees, including communal fees and the holiday homes tax.
Translated from Poslovni.hr.
