Revenue from value-added tax (VAT) accounts for more than 50 percent of total tax revenues and about 35 percent of total revenues of the Croatian budget, which sufficiently illustrates the importance of preventing tax evasion in this area, said Finance Minister Ivan Šuker at today’s ceremony concluding the CARDS 2004 Twinning project ‘Strengthening the Tax System in the Area of VAT for the Preparation and Development of VIES – the Information System for Mutual Connection’.
The project was implemented from January 2006 to September this year by the Croatian Central Office of the Tax Administration and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, specifically the Agency for European Integration and Economic Development, and its implementation was financed with 1.3 million euros from the CARDS project fund. As part of this project, the alignment of legislation in the area of VAT and VIES was carried out, drafts of laws were prepared, and the foundations for the establishment of the Central Liaison Office were laid, which will exchange VAT data with other EU member states, and preparations for the development of the VIES system were also conducted.
Additionally, preparations for educational projects within the PHARE program were also carried out. Šuker announced at the ceremony a project for the modernization of the Tax Administration, which will be financed partly from a World Bank loan and partly from its own funds, and within which an educational center for tax officials will be established. He added that in the Croatian tax system, except perhaps for the excise duty system, only some technical changes are needed for it to be ready for the completion of pre-accession negotiations. All reforms and preparations that Croatia, as a candidate country, is undertaking before membership, according to Austrian Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer, ‘ease the life’ of the country upon joining the Union and strengthen its role as a full member.
