Serbian companies avoid tax in Serbia, introduced in Kosovo

Although Serbia's authorities are aware of the problem, which creates emptiness in the state chest, Serbia's official policy, which treats Kosovo as an integral part of it, has “tied hands to” competents who can solve this problem.

Serbia's Tax Administration has confirmed to Radio Free Europe that some companies are escaping taxes, presenting their headquarters in Kosovo.

This administration has acknowledged that some companies from Serbia have presented addresses in Kosovo as their headquarters. These companies are suspected of fraud and damage to Serbia's state in terms of tax, or there are cases where they owe other economic subjects.

These companies, which are currently in Kosovo -- and which have doubts about fraud and misuse -- have raised criminal charges.

Following Serbia's official policy, the Business Recording Agency has allowed companies from Serbia to have their headquarters carry them to city addresses in Kosovo. Consequently, Serbia's institutions no longer have any chance to control the work of these enterprises or to sanction, in case of irregularities during doing business.

Such a situation has paved the way for numerous frauds, which cost the state of Serbia.

As Serbia's Tax Directorate has acknowledged, some of the companies, which are pre-registered in Kosovo, currently owe Serbia's state about one million euros for taxes.

According to Business Recording Agency data, which has been operating under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Kosovo, 339 companies from Serbia have been registered in Kosovo. Only in the first half of this year were 14 Sosh registered.

Most of them, simply, are exploiting pre-registering, in order to reduce their loads, says Radio Free Europe, economist Biserka Sugargiq, expert on the grey economy.

“The capital moves where tax burdens are lower and residents from the Republic of Serbia have started to re-register companies since 2010. This is nothing new, just now it's become obvious”, Sugardog said.

To explain it more precisely, it is served at the estimate of the tax burden of profit in Serbia and Kosovo.

“I have received the basic working minimum from April 2013, which is amounting to 192 euros. In this profit, cargo on behalf of tax and contribution is 109 in Serbia. Three euros. So 56, 3 percent. On the same basis, (so 192 euros), in Kosovo, tax loads are 26. 88 euros or 14 percent. Practically, this means that the means separated from the work of employees in Serbia is larger for three times, compared to the same in Kosovo”, Sugaragic explained.

However, much more serious phenomenon is the question of companies, which the possibility of carrying headquarters to addresses in Kosovo are misusing in various ways of fraud. To that end, companies also migrated to northern Kosovo, which is inhabited by Serb majority and which since the signing of the Brussels Agreement, is found in a period of transition of integration into the Kosovo system, but also in the part where Kosovo authorities without any problems observe Kosovo's laws, as in Pristina.

Portal Insader.net, for two years, has investigated this kind of abuse, avoidance of commitment fees, and cause damage to the state and other companies. This portal has discovered that in only 3 addresses in Pristina, over the past few years, pre-registered by Serbia have even 80 companies.

Some companies that we have forwarded and later recorded addresses at which they are reported in Pristina are practically fantomic companies. They, when they're simply committing fraud, no longer exist”, said Jelena Jankoviq, journalist at the Insader.net portal.

As it explains, the fraud mechanism they make companies is relatively simple.

Pre-registered companies, prior to that census in Kosovo, buy goods with a postponement of payment. The payment is guaranteed with regular signed bills, and before the contract deadline is passed, they change the address to the Business Record Agency and their headquarters carry it to Kosovo territory. So they leave suppliers with no chance of obtaining their debts given”, Jankovic said.

Deceptions involving the displacement of companies in Kosovo, leaving tax and debt payments, are not surprising the chairman of the Kosovo Economic Ode, Safet Gerjaliu.

According to him, when it comes to tax evasion, it primarily concerns the north of Kosovo, calling it the largest economic “drama in the Balkans.

To illustrate, he quoted the indication that fiscal crates have not yet reached the north, although the fiscalisation process had begun in 2010. Such practice, he says, causes damage to Kosovo's budget and creates uneven competition in its market.

To resolve the problem, according to Gerjaliu, it is necessary to co-operation and permanent contacts of the competent institutions of Serbia and Kosovo.

The exchange of information benefits the war against the grey and criminal economy. If the northern part continues to behave even further as it has so far, it will be a blow not only to Kosovo, but also to Serbian companies and people in Kosovo. The common denominator for solving all these problems is rule of law and law. I hope that in this context we will be more active and contribute as much as possible. If for love and war two people are needed, as well as for corruption and criminality, there is always two”, Gerjaliu told Radio Free Europe.

That Serbia's state is aware of this problem, the fact is that in June 2017, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, had spoken of the Serbian public broadcaster regarding how they are identifying the so-called “supertom companies” in Kosovo.

However, it remains unclear what the Serbian state can do next, considering that the responsible persons in Kosovo are not accessible to Serbia's organs.

The response that Serbia's competent bodies have provided regarding this issue can mainly be rounded up in “depending on the objective circumstances on the ground”, notes Inseder's journalist Jelena Jankovic.

“I think that for all it is clear that this means they can't do anything, because the objective situation is such that the Serbian state has no competencies on the territory of Kosovo, and there is no way to implement its” laws, Jankovic points out.

At the same time, from Serbia's Tax Directorate, they say that from 2010 to the present day, over 100 criminal charges against responsible persons, who now have headquarters on Kosovo territory.

Procedures have been launched near courts in Serbia, but it remains unclear how the commitments would be implemented if they were brought in, considering that Masters have no competencies in Kosovo. / REL

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