May 6, 2020 – Beware the Croatian inspector – a new series courtesy of Glas Poduzetnika (Voice of Entrepreneurs), highlighting a Croatian business reality that helps kill growth, profit, and entrepreneurship. Liquidation due To 344 kn of non-fiscalized invoices.
I have seen them operating all over the country over the last 18 years, the most feared visitors to Croatia’s cafes, restaurants, and other businesses – the Croatian inspector.
As with many corrupt countries, the role of the inspector should be to make sure that the rules are being adhered to in the particular area they specialize in – sanitary, fiscal, etc – but in reality, the prime motivation is to find ways to fill the State coffers and their own. Allegedly.
I heard SO many stories of inspections where perfectly run businesses end up paying thousands in fines, some of it justified, much of it grossly unfair. And there is an old truism here:
If the Croatian inspector comes to visit, he will find something, even if there is nothing there.
It is a subject that I have wanted to cover for years, but I never had quite the right material. Until now.
Huge thanks to those very proactive chaps at Glas Poduzetnika, who are really becoming a force for change to be reckoned with. A really great initiative. In one of their latest moves, they have been collecting some of their members’ experiences with the Croatian inspector, to highlight the issue and the realities of doing business in Beautiful Croatia.
Story #11: Liquidation Due To 344 kn of Non-fiscalized Invoices
My daughter’s company was liquidated because of an unpaid fine after the supervision by an inspector from the tax administration of Zagreb, all because of an overdue fine of 5,000 kn.
The fine was not given for the control that day, everything was in order, but because that gentleman concluded that five months before that supervision five invoices had not been fiscalized within 48 hours, with the total amount of 344 kn.
She did not harm anyone, because she was not in the VAT system, only the tax service did not know about this amount on time.
She did not insist that this was not a violation, but she asked if she could get a warning for that, considering she did not have any other violation until or after then. She reached out to everyone from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship to the Tax Authority manager, who didn’t even bother to respond. Nothing happened. After that, she went to America, she has her own company, and she is now filling the American state budget.
Beware the Croatian Inspector is a new daily series (yes, there really is that much material) which you can follow here.
If you have a Croatian inspector story you would like to share with the Glas Poduzetnika team (in English or Croatian), you can do so via [email protected] Subject TCN inspector.
You can follow the 55,000+ others on the Glas Poduzetnika Facebook page.
