Why do taxpayers in Croatia fear signing letters in which they complain about excessive tax burdens.
written by Ivica Grčar
[email protected]
In an unsigned letter from Zadar, an anonymous reader complains about the tax (over)burden. But why would someone be afraid to sign a letter complaining about something that is common in Croatia? The only thing that comes to mind is that the reader fears retaliation from ‘their’ tax officials. I too am personally exposed to pressure from tax officials due to critical writings about the corruption and incompetence of Ivan Šuker, the Minister of Finance, and most other officials of the Ministry of Finance, especially the Tax Administration.
‘Thieves’ who pay taxes The anonymous reader writes that I should finally openly publish how high the tax burden is in Croatia and proposes their calculation of the obligations of craftsmen (who are increasingly deregistering their businesses due to taxes). I am publishing the calculation in the framework alongside the text. The anonymous reader complained in the letter that tax officials told him to his face that they consider him a thief. And this in the Tax Administration, claims the reader, whose head of department is educating his two daughters in America. Although I shy away from ‘anonymous letters’, I have published the letter almost in its entirety. However, the reader should have written their name to me, and I would not publish it if we agreed that way, just as I have not done so far. But I would gladly publish the name of the head of the Tax Office and ‘determine the source of funds’ for the American tuition fees. As I have previously published that tax officials extort taxpayers to cover costs for their sports games in Medena near Trogir, that they abuse the tax supervision process by determining it solely for delaying VAT refunds, that they continue with tax proceedings despite a final judgment from the competent county court, that corrupt tax officials do not collect unpaid taxes from those who bribe them, etc.
And here is how tax officials pressure journalists whose writings they are not satisfied with (I cannot determine whether they do this at the minister’s instruction or on their own initiative to please the minister). For the past five years, I have been supplementing the difference between my pension and the full price of accommodation for my 98-year-old mother in an institution with appropriate professional care. I supplemented this difference based on a contract with the institution and have all the invoices, and the amounts of these differences ranged from 28,000 to 32,000 kuna per year. During the same period, I earned author fees and, although I was insured on another basis, tax officials tried to charge me contributions on the author fees. This would mean that they calculate contributions on the amounts of the supplements, i.e., on the amounts I paid instead of the ‘state’ for the care of a 98-year-old woman. Similar to the reader’s calculation, the income after paying taxes, surtaxes, and disputed contributions would amount to only about seven percent of gross income.
