THE TREATMENT OF TAXPAYERS BY CROATIAN TAX AUTHORITIES IN THE PRE-INSOLVENCY PROCEDURE

• Main Author: Šime Jozipović
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law 2015-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Pravnog Fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci
• Online Access: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/227412

The Croatian pre-insolvency procedure has a key role in the restructuring of corporations. Based on the fact that a relevant part of the pre-insolvency debt of most corporations is composed of tax debt, the tax authority is a common participant of pre- insolvency procedures. As such, it has various instruments to transform or restructure the tax-debt through the procedure. In order to prevent abuse of those instruments and to unify the actions of the respective tax bodies, there have been introduced various regulations which limit the discretionary power of the tax authorities. It is questionable if those limitations are on the one hand reasonable and on the other hand even legal under the constitutional principle of the rule of law. Regulations that are not statutes have to comply with statutory law and the Croatian constitution. The regulations regarding actions of tax authorities in pre-insolvency procedures, however, could due to their strictness and classification, especially in the shortened procedure (for small tax claims), have consequences which could be categorized as contra legem. In order to analyze the compliance of the regulations with the higher legal acts, the article examines the relation between Croatian tax law and pre-insolvency law, as well as the influence of the Croatian rule of law principle.