Croatians can expect to start receiving notifications about their new personal identification numbers (OIB) as of 2 January, Croatian Finance Minister Ivan Suker said at Thursday's government session, when the Ivo Sanader cabinet sent to parliament a draft general taxation act to parliament.
The extensive task of sending out notifications should be carried out in 2 to 2 1/2 months, and we are also considering the possibility of sending the notification by text message to those who will need the data earlier, the minister said.
As of the start of 2009, the OIB will be automatically awarded to every newborn child and to every newly-established company in Croatia.
The full records of each citizen's OIB and their current ID number, the Unique Master Citizen Number (the acronym of which in Croatian is JMBG) will be kept in parallel for two years, and with the start of 2011 only the OIB will be used, while the JMBG will be phased out.
Under the draft General Taxation Act, the OIB will be regarded the taxpayer's identification number for the purpose of collecting taxes.
The new legislation will also define the concept of tax secret more clearly, and will explain in which situations the obligation to protect a tax secret is not violated.
The new legislation will also facilitate efforts by tax authorities to determine who has failed to report all of their income sources and total incomes correctly.
Commercial banks will be bound to forward to the Tax Administration all the data on transactions in all bank accounts of companies, other legal entities and individuals on a monthly basis or every three months and also at special requests from the Tax Administration within some other time periods.
The proposed legislation regulates the cooperation and exchange of information among European Union member-states regarding taxes.
Amendments to the Profit Tax Act have been adjusted to EU directives and will be enforced with Croatia's entry into the European bloc.
The government okayed the proposal by the Croatian Highways (Hrvatske Autoceste) company to reduce the current highway toll for motorcycles by 40 percent, the Government's public relations office reported.
The Sanader cabinet endorsed business reports on companies in which the government has majority ownership regarding their activities in 2007.
(HINA)
News
