Of 590 last year’s petitions in bankruptcy filed by the Tax Administration, the Commercial Court took on 450, head of the Tax Administration, Mr Miomir M. Mugoša, told in an interview with Pobjeda daily.
Which municipalities do not respect obligations arising from the restructuring?
Mugoša: Last year, we managed to ensure that all municipalities, including the largest debtors (municipalities of Pljevlja and Ulcinj) start paying their restructured and current liabilities.
The greatest challenge is municipal companies that restructured their debt so in the end we had to introduce forced collection actions and consider possibilities for filing bankruptcy.
Which municipalities are the highest-rated ones in terms of tax discipline?
Mugoša: The capital, the municipalities of Tivat, Herceg Novi, Kotor, Plužine, Gusinje and Petnjica, which are not part of the 2015 restructuring, as well as the municipalities of Nikšić, Budva and Bar which are part of restructuring since 2015.
How much tax debt was collected last year and what’s the plan for the current one?
Mugoša: The tax debt in 2019 was decreased by EUR 20 million. Considering that Montenegro Airlines’ tax liabilities will be resolved in 2020 and that liability collection will continue through restructuring and implementation of all prescribed measures by the law, I expect that due liabilities will continue to decrease.
Has the increase in tax debt been stopped, i.e. are the IOPPD forms being submitted on time?
Mugoša: Over the previous period, the due tax debt was reduced by EUR 190 million, while the most significant decrease referred to payroll taxes and contributions – EUR 121 million.
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A significant number of taxpayers are late with submitting the IOPPD forms, and some employers are not paying salaries to their staff on bank accounts. This is why we are especially monitoring this segment, but we also need employees to cooperate with us as we need it besides having insight into the accounting records and cash flows.
What was the collection of tax revenues like last year?
Mugoša: The total gross collection of tax revenues in 2019 was EUR 1.177 billion and it was by EUR 100 million higher compared to 2018 and EUR 80 million more than planned, and by EUR 85 million more than the year before. The VAT revenue amounted to €289.2 million, which is by 15 percent higher compared to 2018 and 14 percent higher than planned. We collected EUR 75.1 million from corporate income tax (nine percent higher than in 2018 and five percent higher than planned); EUR 550.8 million was collected from contributions (four percent higher compared to last year and the plan), EUR 180.9 million from payroll taxes (ten percent higher compared to 2018 and 17 percent above the plan), EUR 20.4 million from real estate taxes (10 percent higher than last year) and EUR 39.1 million from concession fees (six percent higher than last year).
