Računovodstvo, revizija i financije 12/2019

The amendments to and the changes of the most important tax regulations are under way, comprising the VAT Act, the Income Tax Act, the Profit Tax Act, etc. Accordingly, the VAT rate on catering services and preparation of meals should be reduced to 13%, including tax reliefs on salaries of younger persons and the recognition of the additional health insurance. A profit tax rate of 12% should be applied up to the income of HRK 7.5 mil. The changes also comprise the introduction of the output tax and the submission of the tax return even in the case of termination of the company’s activities without liquidation. In the period before the beginning of liquidation the deadline for submission of the tax return is 30 days, whereas in the period of its completion the deadline is 8 days.  

Entrepreneurs often require the information on the amounts which may be paid to workers without tax. Some existing non-taxable income of workers has been increased and some new ones have been introduced since 1 September 2019. This article presents an overview of non-taxable compensations, subsidies, awards and other receipts, which are not regarded as income from non-independent work (salary). It also includes a review of marks of non-taxable income in the JOPPD Form and the marks of personal income which are entered in the payment orders, as well as the procedure of payment on the account in the case of distraint. 

Sending advertising messages to customers, consumers, and the public is a tax deductible expense, with the right to deduct pre-tax. On the other hand, pre-tax cannot be deducted for entertainment expenses, but it can be recognized as 50% of the cost. Taxpayer gifts for beneficial social activities can be recognized as an expense of up to 2% of the previous year's income. The supply of goods and services for such purposes is considered taxable.

The author explains in the article the accounting point of view of the division of the company - separation with takeover, i.e., defines the accounting actions which should be performed in this procedure. In addition, the article explains the taxation viewpoint of the division of the company – separation with takeover from the point of view of value added tax and the point of view of income tax, providing the example of the agreement on the division of the company with the takeover and an example of accounting for the division of the company - separation with takeover applied in business practice.

Since the application of the IFRS 15 - Revenue under Contracts with Customers there have been a rather small number of texts dealing with this Standard, which looks to accountants more like a “statutory law” rule than the accounting regulation on revenue recognition.

The article provides examples of revenue recognition when the obligation to deliver a good or service is fulfilled. This standard further specifies that revenue should be allocated (recognized) to both the part relating to the delivery of the goods (product) and the part for the service rendered, if the delivery contained both. It is intended for entrepreneurs applying IASs and IFRSs.

The list (stock-taking) of assets and liabilities should be completed by an enterprise until end of the year at the latest, which represents a legal obligation. From the viewpoint of the entrepreneur i.e. the company’s management, the list is essential upon fulfilment of the fundamental requirement in financial reporting, i.e. to present a true and fair (objective) financial position of the company. If such a requirement has not been fulfilled, i.e. if all the posts of assets and liabilities have not been checked, such financial reports are not reliable. The article presents the procedures and providesd the organisational solutions aimed at fulfilment of the legal obligation of listing assets and liabilities (debts).

Inventory deficits and surpluses, determined in the stock-taking process, should be correctly entered in the Ledger. Prior to this, it is necessary to determine their tax position. Ullage, spillage, defect and breakage including the technological deficit, which have emerged due to the characteristics of assets and the production process and are in the quantity determined by the decision of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, are regarded as tax deductible deficits, on which VAT is not calculated. However, the deficit extending the determined amounts is not tax deductible and subjects to VAT taxation. Upon calculation of the deficit on the account of the responsible person, there is a difference between the deficit to be covered by the responsible person (regarded as sales) and the deficit calculated as a salary in kind. In such a case the VAT calculation base is a purchase value and the calculated amount is added to the sales value. The deficit determined in the stock-taking list is recorded as income without calculation of VAT since there is no delivery.

The author of the article presents the issue of how to compensate for the deficit caused by the worker, i.e. the damages or deficits at work or related to work. When the worker during his/her work causes damages or deficits to the employer, the question arises how to charge this to the worker.  

      Nastavno na problematiku godišnjeg popisa i inventurnih razlika (manjkova) daju se dvije odluke koje je donijela Hrvatska gospodarska komora na temelju propisa o porezu na dodanu vrijednost, a kojima se propisuje dopuštenost manjkova s osnove kala, rasipa, kvara i loma te tehnoloških manjkova u ugostiteljstvu, ako su nastali kao posljedica objektivnih okolnosti. O obračunu manjkova objašnjava se u prethodnim člancima u ovom broju časopisa.

1. Odluka o dopuštenom manjku s naslova kala, rastepa, kvara i loma na proizvodima u trgovini
2. Odluka o dopuštenoj visini kala, rastepa, kvara, loma i tehnološkog manjka u ugostiteljstvu  

Upon sales collected through a credit card company, attention is paid to the correct reporting and tracking of the collection of credit card receivables and to reporting the costs associated with that mediation service, for which, in principle, does not exist a direct cash flow. When selling shares in companies, the receipts should be entered in class 8, noting that there are no identifiable accounts to show the accounts receivable for those units.

It is a common case that the expenditure is recognized in one accounting period and the pre-tax in another one. Although the expenditure of the period should be recognized under certain circumstances, i.e. if VAT is to be calculated to the VAT payer, the receivables for pre-tax cannot be recognized in the same period but is deferred for the forthcoming period. Upon sales of long-term non-financial assets it should be taken into account if such assets have a certain book value and when they were purchased, because the way of recording their sales depends on these issues. Sometimes, even in such a case the expenditure of their sales is not recorded.

In December 2019, and by December 31, at the latest, employers are obliged to compile an annual calculation of income taxes and surtaxes on salaries and other earnings from non-independent work for workers who were entitled to the payment of salary in all 12 months in 2019.  If the employer has calculated contributions every month, income tax and surtax within their due date, regardless of whether the net wages have been paid or not, then the calculated tax is equal to the annual tax liability, and accordingly, there is no reason to compile the annual calculation. However, this is not the case when an employee who has been employed by that employer for a whole year has been paid in some months a non-taxable compensation at the expense of the HZZO, because at that time all 12 related personal exemptions have not been used. In this case, the employer is obliged to draw up an annual calculation of taxes and surtax from the salary, applying all 12 personal exemptions, and the worker is entitled to a partial refund of taxes and surtax on income. Tax overpayments can also occur in the case of uneven payroll payments when in only in certain months the tax base exceeded HRK 30,000.00 and the tax was paid at 36%.

Starting from September 1, 2019, employers can pay their employees the compensation for the costs of regular care of children in pre-school institutions and other legal and natural persons, which are performed on the basis of special regulations and decisions of the authorised child care body. In order for such a payment to be non-taxable, the determined conditions are to be fulfilled.

This article presents the possibility of non-taxable payment of the above stated compensation to employees and the conditions that are to be met.

During December, at Christmas and New Year holidays time, employees and employees’ children of are usually given rewards in cash and in kind. The modalities and conditions that must be met to allow the non-taxable payment of such benefits to employees and other persons (persons with vocational training, craftsmen) and other dilemmas are explained in the article.

In view of rewarding their employees in December, the employer may pay besides the last salary of the year (usually the salary for November) another salary. Depending on the corresponding legal regulations applied to employees’ rights, the employer may pay a non-taxable performance bonus to the amount of up to HRK 5,000.00.

Due to the fact that it is uncertain under what conditions and when the UK will leave the EU, it is difficult to predict VAT tax treatment of future transactions related to the business of UK entrepreneurs with entrepreneurs from other EU Member States. Different scenarios are possible, and the most intense changes will occur in the event that the UK withdraws from the EU without an agreement. The reason for this is the fact that leaving the EU without a UK agreement would "gain overnight" the status as a third country in terms of applying the VAT regulations. The article outlines the possible implications of VAT in the event of the UK withdrawal from the EU without an agreement, following the principled guidelines of the VAT Committee and the UK tax authority.

 In the articles published in the RRiF Journal issues no. 9/19 and 10/19 the authors presented the conditions under which taxpayers may exercise their right to VAT return in the EU member countries, the deadlines and ways of submission of the application, including the necessary documentation. This article analyses the conditions and the ways in which taxpayers with the place of residence, headquarters or the usual place of residence in other EU member country may exercise their right to VAT return, calculated to them by the taxpayers with the headquarters in the Republic of Croatia.

The condition for the exit from the VAT system as of 1 January 2020 is the threshold – the value of the delivery of goods and rendered services in the precious year to the amount less than HRK 300,000.00 without VAT. The application from the exit from the VAT system (there is no existing form) should be submitted until 15 January 2020 at the latest. However, a small entrepreneur should enter the VAT system if the value of delivery of goods and services in the previous or the current year is over the determined threshold. Accordingly, a lot of small entrepreneurs have already entered the Vat system during the year due to the fact that they crossed the determined threshold of HRK 300,000.00 and only those taxpayers who crossed this threshold in December 2019 should enter the VAT system on 1 January 2020.

Besides the usual rules of filling in each VAT form, the VAT return application which is submitted by the taxpayer for the last taxation period of the calendar year – the Twelfth Form – should contain all the adjustments and corrections for the calendar year. This means, that besides the obligation of the VAT adjustment upon entering/exit into the VAT system, the taxpayers who share pre-tax should adjust the recognized pre-tax during 2019 and calculate a new percentage of the pre-tax recognition for 2020. The VAT Form for December 2019 should be submitted until 20 January 2020 at the latest, including all the previously stated activities. All the above mentioned facts refer to income makers and profit makers.  

The author outlines the views of the EU Court on the tax treatment of financial leasing transactions. In different circumstances, the Court decides on the right of the taxpayer, the leasing provider, the reduction of the tax base in the event of termination of the financial leasing contract due to the non-payment of leasing fees. Furthermore, in the case of sale and lease back transactions, the Court decides on the obligation to correct the deduction of VAT used on the properties subject to those transactions.

If inventories are essential entries in the financial statements, the auditor should obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence regarding the existence and qualitative status of the inventory. In cases when the company, subject to audit,  does not notify the auditor  on the date of implementation of the annual listing of inventories out of any reason, it is most often the auditor's inability to express an unmodified audit opinion because of insufficiently collected evidence on the stock position. The author explains the obligations of the auditor and the auditor company regarding the annual list of inventories.

In this article, the author presents the criteria in revenue audit, the goals of revenue audit, risk assessment procedures in revenue audit, circumstances that indicate the risks of fraud in revenue audit, and examples of determining the risk of fraud in revenue audit.

In practice, three factors are most commonly mentioned to commit fraud: financial pressure, opportunity and rationalization, which represent the "Fraud Triangle". In one of the following issues of our journal there will be the article on control and evidence-based fraud risk assessment procedures.

The true presentation of the financial statements implies the correct way of presenting the comments on the financial statements by the company's management. Such a true presentation also includes rules on completeness, neutrality, avoidance of errors, etc. It is considered that management's comments were not sufficiently edited and often did not cover the above stated rules.

In the future, payment service providers will need to provide Member States' authorities with certain information on cross-border payments, which will then be accessed and analysed by anti-fraud experts (Eurofisc network). The threshold for VAT entry should be raised to EUR 85,000. The list of tax oases has been updated. The EU Parliament resolution requires members to legally mandate large companies to report what taxes they pay and in which country.

Similar to the recent Italian decision, the Greek Government is introducing simplified lump-sum taxation for the rich to encourage them to relocate to Greece.

Croatian entrepreneurs export the most to euro area countries, so the focus is also on the variable exchange rates of the EUR and HRK currencies. There has not been much fluctuation in the movement of this exchange rate in the last few years, but it has to be taken into account. Consideration should be given to the protection of claims in foreign currencies when preparing a business plan. In this article, the author shows how this could have been successfully achieved in 2019.

The author of the text presents a brief review of the changes in the system of fiscal liability referring to company executives and other legal persons whose owners or founders are the state and/or the units of local and regional self-government, all according to the new Ordinance on Preparation and Submission of the Statement on Fiscal Responsibility and the Report on Application of Fiscal Regulations, which became effective on 12 October 2019.

Natural persons who independently carry out economic activities as crafts business, independently perform professional or agricultural and forestry activities, as a rule, are subject to income tax. If they think that it is more favourable for them to pay profit  tax, with regard to the keeping business records, tax rate, determination of the tax base under the Profit Tax Act, they may, by 31 December 2019 at the latest, submit to the Tax Administration the application to become profit tax payers as of January 1, 2020.

If in 2019 these taxpayers receive the income of HRK 7,500,000.00 or more, then as of January 1, 2020, they are required to pay profit tax instead of income tax. They are obliged to inform on this the Tax Administration by 15 January 2020 at the latest.

To become a profit taxpayer requires the change of keeping business records and the adjustment of the way in which the base of profit tax is determined in accordance with the provisions of the Profit Tax Act.

For the transition in 2020, the new rules resulting from the Amendments to the Profit Tax Act, which are due to take effect on January 1, 2020, apply. After the transition to profit taxpayers, this group of taxpayers may continue to apply the procedure of taxation on fees collected, if the value of deliveries of goods and services in 2019 did not exceed HRK 7,500,000.00.

This article presents important notes, obligations and tax consequences for the transition of income taxpayers to profit taxpayers from the point of view of value added tax. Entrepreneurs may make the decision to transfer from income taxpayers to profit taxpayers and vice versa only at the end of the year if they have fulfilled the requirements of the Profit Tax Act or voluntarily at the beginning of their business operations.

Natural persons who are not registered in the VAT Payer Register and who receive income from the independent activity of crafts and agriculture and forestry, may choose to pay a flat tax on income and surtax if their total annual income in the tax period does not exceed HRK 300,000.00. Although there is no obligation to keep the records on flat-rate tax payments, except for the sales and purchase ledger in the KPR Form, the flat-rate payer is obliged to provide the customer with an invoice with the determined contents for each delivery of goods or services provided.

In the case of lump-sum taxation, the tax base on which income tax is paid during the tax period is pre-determined, while the final tax liability is determined according to the turnover recorded in the PO-SD Form. Lump sum users who use ePorezna will submit the PO-SD form electronically to the competent office of the Tax Administration for 2019 by January 15, 2020 at the latest.

The tourist tax is the income of the tourist boards. The tourist tax is used by tourist boards to carry out their tasks and to operate in accordance with the annual work program and financial plan.

The Tourist Tax Act came into force on May 30, 2019. Inspection supervision over the calculation, payment and payment of the tourist tax, as well as the registration and deregistration of the tourist's stay, is again carried out by the Tourist Inspectorate of the State Inspectorate instead of the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance, in accordance with the provisions of the previous Act on Residence Tax. The new Tourist Tax Act will be fully implemented from January 1, 2020. On the basis of this Act, the Ordinance on the minimum and maximum amount of tourist tax was adopted.

Besides the compulsory general (basic) and additional information that must be labelled on each food placed on the market of the Republic of Croatia, presented in the previous issue of RRiF Journal, certain types (categories) of food must also be labelled with special (specific) information determined by special regulations governing the labelling of those foods.

The accuracy and completeness of the information identifying pre-packaged food is the responsibility of the food business operator under whose name or business name the food is placed on the market and which has the headquarters on the territory of any EU Member State or, if such an entity is not established in the EU, the importer for the EU market, and as such is listed on the product. The accuracy and completeness of the information identifying non-pre-packaged food is the responsibility of the food business operator who offers or sells the food to the final consumer (retailer or seller).

State subsidies and subsidies of a low value are intended for entrepreneurs to carry on their economic activities.

The type and purpose of the subsidy to be awarded is determined solely by the subsidy providers, depending on the purpose they wish to achieve and, of course, the amount of funds at their disposal. The article below presents the conditions to be observed in particular by the providers and recipients of the subsidy, in order to avoid irregularities in the granting and use of the subsidy.

Protection at work is a system of rules, principles, measures, procedures and activities, whose organized implementation achieves and improves safety and health protection at work, aimed at preventing occupational risks, injuries at work, occupational diseases, diseases related to work and other material and non-material damage at work and in connection with work. Each employer is obliged to organize and enforce the measures of protection at work and is responsible for their organisation and implementation, regardless of whether he or she has hired one or more experts for protection at work or has contracted protection at work with an authorized legal or natural person. The author of the article therefore outlines the essential obligations of the employer in the field of protection at work.

The author of the article presents the current issue of working time due to frequent questions which arise in practice. The article does not present such an institute as a whole, but is focused on the important obligations of the employers, who are obliged to follow them upon contracting the working time, including other applications of this institute.

Due to the fact that the employer employing at least fifty persons is obliged to adopt a general enactment governing the procedure of internal reporting on irregularities and the appointment of a confidential person, the author of the article presentsan example of such an enactment which includes thedecisions to appoint a confidential person to report irregularities internally.

In this article, the author analyses three institutes that are similar in name to the institutes, but differ significantly in their definitions and effects: taking over of debt, access to debt and taking over of fulfilment. Due to the similarity of the names, they often lead to confusion between the addressees and their differentiation.