Around 147,7 million EUR of the total tax debt referred to the obligations of taxpayers which couldn’t be settled, that is, taxpayers who are in liquidation or those whose registration has been canceled. Total amount of debt of the companies in liquidation amounted 79,4 million EUR. How much of the debt will be paid by sale and allocation of bankruptcy estate, depends on the outcome of bankruptcy proceedings, says the director of Tax Administration, Miomir M. Mugoša.
“Activities aimed at tax debt management, defined by the Plan for tax debt management, have been continued during this year as well, and we expect that the new analysis will show the trend of further reduction of tax debt”, said Mugoša.
According to him, around 6.77+6 taxpayers were allowed the payment of debt in installments, with the amount of interest of 23,6 million EUR.
“All taxpayers are subject to inspection supervision, an activity carried out before the bankruptcy proceedings, in order to determine if there are some other ways to charge the debt. We have canceled decisions on the payment in installments in case of 10 taxpayers, but we are preparing the documentation for these purposes for another 20 taxpayers and I definitely expect more such cases by the end of this year”, says Mugoša.
He claims that Tax Administration treats every taxpayer the same way, and it takes every measure considering the effects it might have on the collection of tax receivables, with the aim of efficient debt management and its reduction. The mission of the Tax Administration is not closure of companies but rather improvement of the business environment and enhancement of economic activity in Montenegro.
As far as the debts of the municipalities are concerned, Mugoša says there are three categories of taxpayers: those who settle their obligations regularly and orderly (Podgorica, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Kotor, Plužine, Gusinje and Petnjica), municipalities such as Nikšić, Budva and Bar which are evidently putting in considerable effort to settle their obligations and finally, municipalities such as Cetinje, Pljevlja, Ulcinj and Bijelo Polje, which are in delay.
“We visited those municipalities which fail to settle their obligations and after that, we organized several meetings with the aim of stimulating these municipalities to settle their obligations regularly as well as of defining specific mechanisms which would enable the sustainability of their finances. Unfortunately, this proactive approach hasn’t been very successful and we are forced to implement measures of compulsory collection”, concluded Mugoša.
