Despite the Prime Minister’s announcement of the postponement of the introduction of property tax, the Tax Administration wants local government units to continue with collection of data on properties.
The Tax Administration announced that, regardless of the Prime Minister’s statement that the introduction of the property tax will not begin in January, local government units should continue to collect property data and update their databases for the purpose of collecting other public fees, including communal fee and the holiday homes tax, reports Poslovni.hr on 11 August 2017.
“Regardless of the announcement of the delay in the application of the Law on Local Taxes, in the part related to the property tax, data on properties and their owners and users, collected on the basis of questionnaires and forms sent by municipalities and towns during the previous period to property owners in their area, will be of use for local government units for the collection of public fees within their jurisdiction,” said the Tax Administration in a statement.
The purpose of collecting this information is to update the databases of local self-government units since some municipalities and towns do not have updated databases, while a certain number of local self-government units do not have databases at all. The State Audit Office has warned about this problem for the last several years. In its reports, findings and recommendations, it has warned about the omissions related to the organisation and control of local revenues collection, the management of records about claims, legal regulation and databases, and to informing the population about the significance of public revenues and their use, said the Tax Administration.
“Updating databases is a job that local government units must continue to perform in order to control whether other fees are being paid, such as communal fee and the holiday homes tax. Updating the databases is just one of the measures that local self-government units should implement in order to timely collect revenues and receipts from the competencies of municipalities and towns. That will ultimately contribute to improving living conditions and meeting the public needs of all residents living in their areas,” concluded the Tax Administration.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on Tuesday the postponement of the introduction of the property tax, whose implementation was scheduled to start in 2018, assessing that the Croatian public was not well informed about all aspects of the tax. “At this point, it is the prevailing opinion that, after further analysis and discussion, the wisest solution might be to suggest a delay in the application of this tax for the foreseeable future,” said the Prime Minister.
After this announcement, the Municipality of Tisno announced that it would initiate proceedings against the Finance Ministry and request a refund for the funds spent so far on establishing the system and gathering of data required for the introduction of the property tax.
Transpated from Poslovni.hr.
