EU saves entrepreneurs from liquidators under the Accounting Act

It seems that the EU will resolve the bureaucratic problem created by the Accounting Act, which came into force at the beginning of the year, sooner than our Ministry of Finance will. Now companies must appoint a liquidator for incoming invoices who will stamp them, scan, archive digitally and on paper… However, starting from July 1, the EU Regulation will come into effect, which will allow for an electronic stamp on incoming invoices.

The nature of the problem is illustrated by the association Croatian Independent Software Exporters (CISEx). In a letter sent to the Ministry of Economy, they provide an example of how unnecessary this bureaucratic provision is.
– We estimate that in an average ICT company with 30 employees and about 100 incoming invoices per month, this task takes 500 minutes, or eight hours. That is more than one working day, or about five percent of the total working time of employees – they say.

What did the legislator want? Since there are 7,672 registered IT companies in Croatia, the association calculated that due to this obligation, they collectively lose six million kuna per month, or more than 70 million kuna per year, which is the annual revenue of a solid company. Moreover, they particularly emphasize that it is completely unclear what the benefit is on the other side of that equation and what the legislator intended to achieve.
There is no doubt, there is work in abundance, and we can freely say, it is dulling work. CISEx has made an effort to calculate how much the ICT sector in Croatia suffers financial damages due to such a legal obligation.
I have witnessed situations where accountants literally hissed at the mention of this legal provision. It has filled their cup of bitterness, claiming that the law was written by people who are stuck in the mid-20th century. When we were working on the story about this law, we mentioned this problem, but the Ministry of Finance, or the Tax Administration, did not see anything controversial about it.

Minister Marić is the right address. And this firm stance of the tax authorities could be the problem that CISEx warned about based on their experience. They contacted the Ministry of Economy to comment on the public policy proposal, mentioning, as we have seen, this problem. The ministry of Tomislav Panenić responded positively to their proposals and included them in its proposals. But that is only half the way, if even that.
The real author of the Accounting Act is the Ministry of Finance, so the right address is Minister Zdravko Marić, who, with the authority of his position and as a person who came from the real sector, must discuss this provision with his associates, as well as some other provisions of the Accounting Act. If the Ministry of Economy accepted CISEx’s comments, then Minister Panenić should push this with his colleague Marić. Because the fact is that everyone, both accountants and entrepreneurs, hiss at this provision, which is a clear signal that something is not right, as demonstrated by CISEx’s calculation.
The EU Regulation mentioned at the beginning of the text unfortunately shows how far behind we are compared to the modern world. It should be above the Accounting Act, but entrepreneurs should not relax. An inspector can always come and cite the Accounting Act. Therefore, Minister Marić, to avoid confusing entrepreneurs, change that Accounting Act!