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Anyone who cannot prove that he legally acquired the property will be left without three-quarters of its value, and if the court determines that the property was acquired for a crime, he may be deprived of any property acquired illegally, in accordance with the Law of Determination of the Origin of the Goods and special tax, the application of which begins on March 11.
They will be “object of attack” of this Law those of which the fiscal authorities suspect, that is to say, they determine, that during a maximum of three consecutive calendar years they have a difference of more than 150,000 euros between the increase of the property and the declared income , and if there is suspicion of commission of a crime, the case will be reported to the police and the prosecution, the president of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors of Serbia, Nenad Stefanović, told Tanjug.
He considers that with this law the State has been given an effective mechanism so that it can be determined for everyone at any time if they have become illegally rich.
“The fight against organized crime involves in the first place a blow to the income obtained from the commission of criminal acts by organized groups and their confiscation,” Stefanović emphasized.
According to this Law, the control of citizen property will be carried out by a special Unit of the Tax Administration and if it determines that there is property acquired illegally, it will make the decision to determine a special tax of 75 percent on the tax base, which is the sum of the revalued value of the illegally acquired property for each calendar year. it was subject to control.
Taxpayers will have the opportunity to appeal this decision to the Ministry of Finance, whose decision will be final in the administrative procedure, but will still be able to initiate an administrative dispute – a lawsuit before the Administrative Court.
The burden of proving the increase in the property of a natural person falls on the Tax Administration, while the burden of proving the origin of the property falls on the taxpayer in the part where the increase in his property is not in accordance with the income. declared.
The law introduces the so-called “cross-control of assets”, which is carried out by the aforementioned special unit of the Tax Administration.
For the purpose of a more efficient procedure and the presentation of the required data to this Unit, one or more employees will be appointed to act as liaison with the Unit of the Ministry of the Interior, the National Bank of Serbia, the Administration against Money Laundering. , the Agency against Corruption, the Geodetic Authority of the Republic, the Agency of Commercial Registries and Central Registry, Deposit and Compensation of Securities.
If necessary, the liaison officers may, at the request of the Director of the Tax Administration, be temporarily transferred or sent to work in the Tax Administration Unit.
If in a special tax procedure it is suspected that a crime was committed during the illegal acquisition of a property, the Tax Administration Unit will inform the Police, the Tax Police, the Public Ministry and other competent authorities.
Who are the people whose property will be inspected – will be determined through annual guidelines issued by the director of the Tax Administration, based on the risk analysis.
The guidelines will not be publicly available, the law states.
Likewise, the property control procedure may be initiated at the request of citizens or any institution.
The law specified that during the control, all the assets of the natural person under control are taken into account, and especially real estate, such as an apartment, house, building and commercial premises, garage, land and others. Financial instruments, participations in a legal entity, equipment for self-employment, motor vehicles, boats, ships and other vessels and airplanes, savings and cash deposits, as well as other property rights are also being verified.
Otherwise, it is prescribed that all persons who participate in this procedure are obliged to keep the data of the procedure as professional secret.
When it comes to the relationship between this tax procedure and criminal procedure, the Law stipulates that if a final judgment determines the proceeds of crime, but also paid a special tax under this Law, the court then counts the amount of the special tax paid to the proceeds of crime.
This rule will also be applied in the processes of confiscation of property derived from a crime.
It is also prescribed that the employees of the Tax Administration Unit shall be obliged to submit complete and truthful data about their property to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption before starting work. Security controls are also planned for them, which will be carried out by the Ministry of the Interior and the Security Information Agency (BIA) at the written request of the director of the Tax Administration, before they start working, during their work in the Unit. and one year after his cessation.
The controls will be carried out without the knowledge of the controlled persons.
The law provides for security checks by the Ministry of the Interior to determine the existence of obstacles from the point of view of the protection of public order, and the BIA from the point of view of the security of the Republic of Serbia.
The law also provided penalties for failure to cooperate with the Tax Administration. Legal persons who, at the request of the Tax Administration Unit, do not submit the required data within the period set by this mark, may be fined from 500,000 to two million dinars.
For the same offense, the entrepreneur is threatened with a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 dinars, and a fine of 50,000 to 150,000 dinars with a fine to a natural and responsible person in a legal person, state body and organization, as well as an autonomous province and body of local government and holder of a public authority.
In addition, a fine of 50,000 to 150,000 dinars is foreseen for a natural person who does not keep the data obtained in the property determination and excise tax procedure as professional secret.
The law was approved on February 29 of last year and entered into force on March 11, with one year of delayed implementation due to the formation of the Unit and the preparations for the effective implementation of this regulation.
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