Telegram provides a good commentary on the topic of the contribution law.
The mindset in which every craftsman, startup founder, investor, or business adventurer is viewed as a potential thief, and laws and regulations are shaped accordingly, is a fundamental problem of the Croatian economy. This is a consequence of several decades of a negotiated-state economy, first collective in socialism, and then, no less collective, in capitalism.
>>>Marić: There Will Be No Changes for Small and Medium Enterprises
It is quite clear that employees of the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration have concluded that there is potential for additional budget revenues in the tax bases for directors of companies. It is also clear that they have concluded that the minimum salaries for directors are a result of a malicious intent to harm the state, rather than, for example, an attempt to reinvest every kuna in creating new value, new revenues, products, operations, and jobs.
The American IRS, as well as the German tax administration, and most modern tax administrations, have a simple principle. They view all business processes as fundamentally benevolent and will gladly provide advice if you have made a mistake somewhere, or if you did not know something, or if you have gone astray. If, however, they conclude that you have intentionally tried to deceive them, the penalties will be truly draconian. In Croatia, we have a perverse inversion of that model: we are all considered fraudsters from the start, while real fraudsters usually manage quite well.
