Taxman becomes electronic
New bill will see administration and taxpayers only in contact online in most cases
Taxpayers will now only communicate with the tax office digitally and via electronic messages, while audits will be completed within a maximum of one year, according to the new tax bill amending the Tax Procedures Code established in 2013.
The changes introduce artificial intelligence when conducting audits, while tax clearance will be issued faster through interoperability with other government agencies. At the same time, a provision will be included that will provide for the pre-completion of tax returns for employees and pensioners.
The government will present the draft law on Thursday, with the aim of having it voted in by Parliament in early April. The bill will concern the following:
• End of taxpayers’ in-person over-the-counter communication with tax officials. The digital/electronic communication of the tax administration with the taxpayer regarding the notification of deeds, other documents and files is universally introduced, which also provides the advantage of accurately recording these transactions.
• Interoperability. When communication with other entities is required for the provision of tax information, this will be done exclusively through interoperability. This will lead to the faster issuance of tax information.
• Businesses and companies that keep simple books are exempted from the obligation to present tax files, books and data for inspection.
• Pre-filled tax returns for about 1 million taxpayers.
• The planned changes define the concepts of partial, full and remote audit and the corresponding orders, and relate the scope of the audit order to the audit report and define the maximum duration of the tax audit.
• The way of selecting cases to be audited is changing, based on the audit risk criteria applied by the tax administration.
• The limitation periods for tax cases do not change, but the limitation period after the activation of the new provisions will start from the date of notification of the relevant act to the taxpayer instead of the date of its issuance.
