INTERVIEW VIOLETA JOVANOVIĆ, NALED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
eFiscalization
HAS CLEAR BENEFITS We see eFiscalization as a powerful weapon against the grey economy, which causes incomparably more damage to responsible entrepreneurs than other negative influences. And we will very quickly see the benefits of this change, both as individuals and as a society
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ccording to the assessment of the latest NALED study, the economic grey zone has an annual turnover exceeding seven billion euros. The new system of fiscalization, which should lead to significant reductions in unfair competition, was introduced with great haste and without the extending of deadlines for those resisting this change. Violeta Jovanović, executive director of NALED – an organisation that has long since advocated in favour of this reform – believes that we’re readily entering a system that was introduced by many countries a full decade ago. Are we now really ready for this step? - The new system of fiscalization brings great change to Serbia’s business climate, because it will significantly improve supervision of the recording of retail turnover and help improve tax culture and responsibility among both citizens and businesses when it comes to the issuing or accepting of fiscal receipts. eFiscalization will also encompass a much larger number of entrepreneurs than were included under the pre-existing system, thus giving us a clearer picture of the volume of retail turnover. We are now replacing the extremely outdated technology that we introduced more than a decade and a half ago with a modern solution that’s being introduced by ever more countries. The Tax Administration is gaining an effective means of control and thus has a higher level of responsibility to use this tool to its full extent. Croatia introduced this system back in 2013 and, thanks to eFiscalization, improved the efficacy of tax inspectors who had the “luxury” of reducing the number of onsite inspections threefold while detecting four times as many irregularities. It’s tough to find justifiable reasons for why we’ve had to wait so long, because the first preparations for eFiscal-
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Financial Sector Serbia 2022
ization in Serbia also began almost 10 years ago. The statistic showing that slightly more than 120,000 businesses applied for fiscalization by the beginning of April demonstrates that, with every reform, we have a significant number of businesspeople who always wait until the last minute to adjust to new ways of working or don’t sufficiently inform themselves with regard to obligations. That’s why all the training we’ve organised on eInvoicing and eFiscalization – and we’ve conducted more
than 30 workshops and training courses for many thousands of users, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and with the support of the British Embassy, within the scope of the Small Business Info project – we placed our focus on accountants because they are, according to research that we’ve conducted, the main source of information for approximately 80% of small enterprises. That’s why we believe that the vast majority of businesses are ready for 1st May.
