Pravo i porezi 1/2014

The author of the article presents in an interesting and transparent way the most important news in the regulations regarding the taxation of profit, income, sales of goods and services – value added tax and the Act on Tax Administration, which have been applied since the end of 2013. The changes of such regulations are mostly to be applied on the accounting period which starts on 1 January 2014, whereas some of them will be applied in the accounts for the year of 2013. The new Act on Tax Administration should be separately analyzed. Therefore, the author does not deal with it in this article. The changes also comprised the regulations on the parafiscal public revenues, such as the fact that the contributions are no more paid to the Croatian Chamber of Economy, just the membership fee which is slightly lower compared to the previous years. Thus, the financing of the Chamber has eventually been complied with the Act which regulates this Chamber.

Besides, the novelties comprise some minor compliances and amendments to the valid regulations in the Republic of Croatia. The Act on the Amendments to the Act on Succession has introduced a number of substantial changes regarding the legal determination of the vacant succession and some minor changes referring to the compliance with other regulations. In Croatia, the vacant succession has been transferred to the towns, i.e. municipalities, which has recently caused major problems in the situations when a certain unit of the local self-government has acquired a vacant succession, in which the amount of liabilities is higher than the value of the property goods. Due to the creditors’ claims from the towns and municipalities there were frequent situations when they were unable to fulfil their legal obligations. In some cases the amount of the debts as a part of the vacant succession was several times higher than the amount of the annual budget of some units. The above stated new provisions try through the prism of the Distraint Act to provide the corresponding legal protection to the towns and municipalities regarding the vacant succession.

The author of the text presents an overview of the new Act on Crafts Businesses, which became effective on 10 December 2013. Thus, the old Act, which was valid for almost twenty years, became ineffective. The old Act on Crafts Businesses was changed and amended many times. Finally, it was decided to pass the new Act on Crafts Businesses, which in fact has not realized the main objectives, due to which it was passed, such as the equal rights of the craftsmen and other entrepreneurs in this period of crisis, in order to improve the conditions of performing the operations of craftsmen.

The author of the article analyzes the legal status of the “general public property”, a relict from the socialist idea of a public ownership, whose existance in the land registers confirms that such a orioerty has still not been transferred into the private property, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the provisions of the Act on Ownership and other substantive rights and regulations. The article also analyzes the determination of the ownership rights to the property of the Republic of Croatia, primarily the real estate, which are according to the entries in the land register as the general public property still regarded as the state-owned property. All these facts affect the possible ownership and other rights of the local units and other legal entities in relations to such real estate and the options of their use and disposal. The analysis of the selected court decisions has shown the viewpoints of the highest courts in Croatia in view of the legal presumptions for transition and acquisition of the ownership rights to the real estate described as the “general public property”, especially regarding the successor of such a right.

The Act on the Amendments to the Act on Land Registers, which was passed in April 2013, contains the Article 84a, which includes a new type of notification, namely the notification on the start-up of the proceedings at the court or the administrative body.. The first part of the article presented the pre-conditions for recording the notification on the start-up of the procedure, whereas the second part presents a detailed overview of the specific procedures for which it is possible to record the notification on the start-up of the procedure.

The authors of the article present in an interesting, transparent and detailed way the issues regarding timeshare, long-term holiday product, resale and exchange contracts. The article does not compare the previous provisions of the Act on the Consumers’ Protection, neither the Directive 94/47/EC (the first Directive on timeshare) with the valid provisions of such regulations. The aim is to present the relevant provisions of the above stated Act and the Directive 2008/122/EC on the protection of consumers in respect of certain aspects of timeshare, long-term holiday product, resale and exchange contracts, implemented in this Act through the Amendments passed in 2012 and to point to certain differences or vaguenesses in the Directives and/or the Act.

In the previous issue of the PIP Journal the first part of the article on the new Act on Open End Investment Funds with Public Tender. This part continues analyzing this current issue, comprising some further essential provisions of this Act. It should be pointed out that this is one of the rare acts in the Republic of Croatia which has not been amended since it was passed almost eight years ago, which is rather interesting due to the fact that it has caused a number of dilemmas and difficulties upon its application. Therefore, it is advisable that the issue of the investment funds in general, comprising the open end investment funds with public tender as well, is complied with the EU regulations.

The author of the article analyzes the issues regarding the property taken over in the procedures of collection of receivables. It should be pointed out that this article mostly deals with the property taken over as the ownership, including the specific procedures by the bank as its owner. The process of taking over the property in the procedures of the forced collection of payment represents one of the regular and legally determined ways of collecting the receivables by creditors. Due to the different subjects of distraint and/or bankruptcy procedure and the rising number of the procedures of forced collection of payment at the authorized institutions, the creditors become the owners of the property of creditors/lien creditors, which essentially changes their status, rights and obligations for the property acquired in such a way. In the case when the creditor becomes the owner of the taken-over property, the creditor-debtor relationship stops existing due to the fact that through such a takeover in the procedure of the forced collection of payment the collection of receivables has been completed.

The author of the article presents an overview of the Decision on Determination of the Annual Quota of the Work and Residence Permits for the purpose of employing foreign citizens in the Republic of Croatia in the year of 2014. The above stated Decision was passed by the Governement of the Republic of Croatia on 12 December 2013 and it was published in the Official Gazette no. 151/13.

The topic of this article are the provisions of the Directive 2011/7/EU on prevention of late payments in commercial contracts. Accordingly, the EU member countries are obliged to comply their legislations regarding the deadlines of settlement of cash liabilities from commercial contracts. The author analyzes the provisions of the above stated Directive regarding the legal deadlines for settlement of cash liabilities and points to their flaws and suggests more appropriate legal solutions de lege ferenda.