Pravo i porezi 10/2009

According to the latest amendments of the Companies' Act the Croatian legal system comprises the possibility to structure a company according to the monoistic system. The typical monoistic systems prevail in the Anglo-Saxon law, whereas the typical dualistic systems refer to the continental law, especially the German and Austrian laws. Up to now only the dualistic system has been possible according to the act which comprised the general assembly, tbe supervisory board and the management board. According to the above stated amendments of the Companies' Act a company may choose its structure. One of the differences between these two systems is the fact that in the monoistic system there is no strict legal division between management and supervision of the company. Accordingly, supervison is performed by the management or partially by the management and partially by the assembly.

The persons obligated by the collective agreement, which is determined by the provisions of the Art. 189. of the Labour Act, can be extended to the trade union (and its members), whose representative took part in the committee for negotiations with the employer regarding signing of the collective agreement, no matter of the fact that this trade union has not signed a collective agreement, but under the condition that the representative of such a trade union has during negotiations accepted the conditions stated in the collective agreement. The disagreement should not be of any importance if the employees' rights are not reduced. Starting from the fact that a trade union protects employees' rights, the behaviour of the trade union rejecting to sign a collective agreement which reduces employees' rights in view of the previous collective agreement should be regarded as an act of good faith in negotiating. Such a trade union should not have the imposed obligation to accept the collective agreement which is unfavourable for the employees, which such a trade union represents.

In the first part of this year the Act on Amendments of the Foreigners Act became effective, comprising the new provisions on the labour and legal position of the foreigners in the Republic of Croatia. According to the above stated Act the number of persons who do not have to possess a work permit has been extended, including some specifics regarding the work permit. In view of pension insurance there are specifics too. Procurators, members of a company's supervisory board and a company's founders (except in the case they have been entered in the Companies' Register as management board members or are employed in a specific company), executive directors of a share holding company are not insured at the Croatian Institute for Pension Insurance. The members of the management board are obliged to possess a work permit if they have the right to insurance according to the above stated Act (employees and the persons with the same status according to the specific regulation), i.e. a business permit if they have the right to insurance also according to the above stated Act (management board members if they are not insured in some other way).

The article presents a review of an important decision made by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, which is in the author's opinion essential for the entire Croatian legal system comprising a number of additional issues outside the scope of the case itself. It has been pointed out that the practice of the European Court for Human Rights should be especially considered, according to which the errors or mistakes of the state bodies should be regarded in favour of the partiy concerned, especially if some other contrary private interest is not affected.  In other words, the risk of each mistake made by the state body shold be beared by the state and the mistakes cannot be ractified to the cost of the citizen concerned. As a conclusion, it has been pointed out that the above stated decision belongs to the category, for which it can be said that after it nothing will be the same, since everybody who takes part in any procedure should take care of whether he/she offends one's legitimate expectation through such a decision.

The new General Tax Act, which became effective at the beginning of 2009, determines the obligatory procedure for all tax bodies when dealing with taxation issues. This is a specific administrative procedure different than the provisions stated in the new Act on General Administrative Procedure, which is to become effective at the beginning of the next year. These provisions represent universal legal rules which are to be applied in solving administrative procedures by all the authorized administrative institutions. According to the provisions of the General Tax Act all the issues which are not determined by this Act will subject to the Act on General Administrative Procedure. This article stresses some novelties compared to the solutions so far, considering the fact that the tax procedure is carried out by an official person in the tax body who applies the provisions referring to the specific case.

Hrvatski sabor na sjednici 30. srpnja 2009. godine donio Zakon o naknadi za pružanje usluga u pokretnim elektroničkim komunikacijskim mrežama, a isti je objavljen u Narodnim novimama  broj 94/09. Zakon je stupio na snagu 01. kolovoza 2009. godine i njime se propisuje plaćanje naknade za pružanje usluga u pokretnim elektroničkim komunikacijskim mrežama, koja je prihod Državnog proračuna Republike Hrvatske.

In the past ten years, until 2008, life insurances were generators of growth of the entire insurance market in the Republic of Croatia with the annual growth rates of insurance premiums of 17%. Due to the economic and financial crisis in 2008 this growth was reduced to only 2.9%. Due to the continued serious crisis in the first six months of 2009  the number of life insurance premiums decreased by 3.5%. Such a reduced number of premiums is primarily caused by a high decrease of bank insurances and policies tied to purchasing stakes in investment funds. Besides, insurance companies are faced with a substantial number of termination of life insurance contracts. Although termination of the life insurance contract is unfavourable to the insured person, especially in the first few years, the percentage of termination of such contracts was 20-30% in the first half of this year. The current financial crisis had a negative effect on the macro-economic framework necessary for the stable growth of life insurances. Due to the fact that life insurances represent long-term liabilities, they are mostly affected by the financial crisis of all financial institutions.

U praksi se javljaju različiti oblici političkih sporazuma, od uobičajenih koalicijskih ugovora, preko onih o uvrštavanju na izborne liste u zamjenu za doprinos financiranju kampanje, do materijalnog kažnjavanja političara koji nakon izbora promijene tabor. U radu se analiziraju pitanja je li riječ o utuživim pravnim poslovima, odnosno je li uopće riječ o pravnim poslovima? Razmatra se i pitanje pruža li pravni poredak takvim sporazumima, osim mogućih političkih posljedica, i neki oblik pravne zaštite?

In September 2009 the Amendments of the Act on Limited Consumption of Tobacco Products became effective. Accordingly, the number of exceptions of the principal prohibition of smoking in public covered areas is increased and the strict technical conditions which have to be fulfilled by the owners of catering facilities regarding the smoking areas have been alleviated. According to the Act the entire area of a catering facility with the surface less than 50 sq.m. where guests are served drinks and beverages only, can be proclaimed as a smoking area. Besides, the owners or users of a catering facility have a 6-month transitional period to make adjustments in the areas where smoking i.e. consumption of tobacco products is allowed. 

Lokalna samouprava je važan čimbenik demokratskog političkog sustava tako da se i samim Ustavom RH jamči pravo na lokalnu i područnu (regionalnu) samoupravu. Pravo na samoupravu ostvaruje se preko lokalnih odnosno područnih predstavničkih tijela čiji članovi se biraju na slobodnim i tajnim izborima. Lokalne jedinice imaju pravo na vlastite prihode kojima slobodno raspolažu, a država je dužna pomagati financijski slabije jedinice lokalne samouprave. Pojava niza propisa koji uređuju navedenu materiju, kao i to da jedinice lokalne (područne) samouprave svojim odlukama samostalno uvode, razrezuju i naplaćuju pojedine javne prihode, čini djelovanje lokalne i područne samouprave prilično složenim.

Zakon o suzbijanju diskriminacije (ZSD), koji je na snagu stupio 01. siječnja 2009., uz materijalnopravne odredbe kojima je normirana svrha Zakona, te definirana diskriminacija i njeni pojavni oblici, sadrži i posebne procesnopravne odredbe koje se primjenjuju u antidiskriminacijskim parnicama. Njima su pojedine procesne radnje i instituti regulirani na drukčiji način nego odredbama Zakona o parničnom postupku  (ZPP) temeljem kojih će se, osim u dijelu u kojem je ZSD-om uređeno drukčije, postupati i u antidiskriminacijskim parnicama. To se poglavito odnosi na odredbe kojima su normirane vrste antidiskriminacijskih tužbi, stvarna i mjesna sudska nadležnost u antidiskriminacijskim parnicama, određivanje privremenih mjera, teret dokazivanja, intervencija trećih osoba, paricijski rok, ovršnost i pravo na izjavljivanje revizije kao izvanrednog pravnog lijeka.

The system of asset evaluation in Germany is regulated by the Act on Evaluation which contains general and specific provisions on evaluation. The specific provisions on evaluation are a part of other relevant acts (Income Tax Act, for example).  In legal terms, the economic unity is determined as the object of evaluation. Accordingly, there is a difference between the assets of agricultural farms and forest estates, land assets and a company's assets. The evaluation of the assets comprises the general value and the accompanying values, a partial and taxation balance value and the income generating value. The unit value is the value which makes up a tax base for various tax types. 

Provođenje nadzora koncentracija poduzetnika na nadnacionalnoj razini u Europskoj uniji dano je u nadležnost Europske komisije. Ona putem sustava obvezne notifikacije primjenom procesnih i materijalnih propisa daje ocjenu može li se dopustiti implementacija predložene koncentracije ili ju pak treba zabraniti. Nadzor koncentracija poduzetnika provodi se kako bi se spriječilo da dođe do uspostave nepovoljnije tržišne strukture nakon provedbe koncentracije od one koja je postojala prije njezine provedbe. Intencija je spriječiti provedbu onih konsolidacija poduzetnika na tržištu koje bi dovodile do povećavanja koncentriranosti tržišta odnosno koje bi omogućile da poduzetnici, zahvaljujući provedbi koncentracije, povećaju svoju tržišnu snagu nauštrb očuvanja djelotvornog tržišnog natjecanja na mjerodavnom tržištu.