Directors Debtors Must Pay Half a Billion Kuna from Personal Assets

The Tax Administration has issued 402 decisions under which directors and owners of companies must pay 468.25 million kuna in taxes from their personal assets, which the companies they managed owed to the state.

The Tax Administration holds directors and owners liable as tax guarantors in cases where their companies owed money to the state, and this was not due to poor business performance, but rather these directors, in the opinion of the tax authorities, consciously decided not to pay their obligations to the state, writes today’s Novi list.

Typically, this involves money being transferred to the accounts of other related companies, and even to the owners personally, while debts accumulated. Since last year, responsible persons in these companies have been tax guarantors, and in cases where it is determined that they intentionally avoided paying taxes, the state holds them liable for abuse and can collect from their personal assets.

– The Tax Administration has initiated 557 procedures for determining the abuse of rights in tax proceedings, of which 421 procedures are currently ongoing for a total debt amount of 801,625,898.82 kuna, the Tax Administration responded to the inquiry regarding the amount of tax debt they are attempting to collect from the personal assets of responsible persons.

They also revealed that they have issued the aforementioned 402 decisions for a debt of 468 million kuna, but these are evidently not enforceable as the state has so far managed to collect 12.72 million kuna from that amount.

In these cases, the directors, as tax guarantors, received a second-instance ruling from the Tax Administration that they must pay taxes from their personal assets or did not appeal at all but paid the debt immediately upon the first decision.

Additionally, where the Tax Administration has not been able to find money in the personal accounts of directors, they have also begun to collect through property foreclosures in cases where they have a final decision that there was an abuse of rights.

– A total of 14 foreclosure proceedings have been initiated on real estate before the competent courts for a total debt amount of 11.5 million kuna, they reveal in their response from the Tax Administration.