At the Seventh Session of the Second Regular Meeting, on December 17th, 2020, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the new Law on Fiscalization (“Official Gazette of the RS”, no. 153/2020, hereinafter referred to as: the “Law”). The Law entered into force on December 29th, 2020 and shall be applied as of January 1st, 2022.
This Law regulates the subject of fiscalization, the procedure of fiscalization through an electronic fiscal device, the content of the fiscal invoice, determines the taxpayers and regulates other issues of importance in this field.
The new Law should lead to more efficient control of all deliveries of goods and services provided at retail level, including received advances for future turnover of goods and services. It should also ease and create conditions for more efficient monitoring and control of taxpayers at risk of tax evasion to the Tax Administration and increase the number of tax controls at the seat of the tax authority, thus reducing the need for field controls.
First of all, the Law defines the taxpayer as any taxpayer of income tax from self-employment in terms of the law governing personal income tax or taxpayer of corporate income tax in terms of the law governing corporate income tax, which performs retail trade.
The taxpayer is obliged to record each individually realized retail turnover, regardless of the method of payment (cash, instant transfer of approval, check, credit card, other non-cash method, etc.), including received advances for future retail turnover, through electronic fiscal device.
Therefore, the taxpayer is obliged to issue a fiscal invoice at the time of retail turnover, including the received advance for future retail turnover, using an electronic fiscal device, which consists of elements (fiscal invoice processor and electronic invoicing system), and whose use was previously approved by the Tax Administration.
The fiscal invoice processor is a new device that will connect the taxpayer’s cash register with the Tax Administration, so in this way tax inspectors will be able to monitor the issuance of invoices. Meaning that, at the same moment, when the goods or services are collected and passed through the fiscal cash register, the Tax Administration shall receive information on the price, place and time of turnover.
Therefore, taxpayers who issue fiscal invoices will be obliged to purchase additional technology, that is to upgrade their old fiscal cash registers, and in order for the new system to be functional, it is also necessary to have a stable internet connection. We note that tradesman should not have additional costs related to the implementation of the Law, bearing in mind that the state has announced funding the purchase of new equipment for fiscal cash registers.
The taxpayer is also obliged to use the security element for signing fiscal invoices for the purposes of conducting the fiscalization procedure and verifying identity when exchanging data and information with the Tax Administration, and to process each invoice at the time of retail transactions both through the fiscal invoice processor and through the security element, given that in such way the invoice is fiscalized.
The taxpayer is obliged to, before starting to use the electronic fiscal device for issuing fiscal invoices, electronically submit to the Tax Administration data on business premises in which the electronic fiscal device will be used, for each business premises separately.
Supervision over the application of this Law will be performed by the Tax Administration and the tax inspector will be authorized to impose a ban on performing business activities to the taxpayer for up to one year if he finds that the taxpayer does not record each individual retail turnover, including received advances for future retail turnover through electronic fiscal device.
Also, the Law prescribes penalty provisions, that is, misdemeanors due to which there is a possibility of punishing the taxpayer with a fine in the amount of 20,000 up to 2,000,000 dinars, depending on the violation.
For any additional consultations or legal assistance, you can contact the Tasić & Partners team by email at [email protected] or by phone at +381116302233.