The penalisation of tax violations and criminal tax offences in Slovenian law
| Published date | 01 April 2005 |
| Pages | 173-177 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13685200510621127 |
| Date | 01 April 2005 |
| Author | Liljana Selinšek |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
The Penalisation of Tax Violations and Criminal Tax
Oences in Slovenian Law
Liljana Selins
Ïek
INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with legal regulation in the ®eld of
penalisation of tax anomalies in the Republic of Slove-
nia. The Republic of Slovenia is a small Central Euro-
pean country, situated between the Alps and the
Adriatic Sea. Slovenia has been independent since
25th June, 1991. From then onwards, in the main
part, it adopted its own legislation. Because of the
imminent accession of Slovenia to the European
Union (EU) this legislation is now in the phase of
accelerated conformation to EU legal standards and
demands.
Slovenian taxpayers as a rule dislike paying taxes (as
do taxpayers in most countries). This resistance is in
the ®rst place conditional on the fact that they get no
services in return, any counter-value or consideration,
although their economic power and consequently
their social status is reduced because of paying the
tax. For this reason, tax law is part of the compulsory
law, which is necessary for giving an assurance of the
permanent in¯ow of funds into the national budget.
Therefore it is no wonder that dislike of paying tax
is as old as those taxes themselves.
This paper delineates the consequences that could be
realised by the taxpayer (citizen or foreigner) in the
Republic of Slovenia who breaks tax laws. In some
countries this is the subject of a special branch of
law, called `penal tax law'.
1
In Slovenian law theory,
penal tax law is unknown as a separate subject of
research in its own right. There are also no terms
which could be co-indicators for tax avoidance and
tax evasion as there are in English speaking countries.
Slovenian legal theory recognises only the term `with-
drawal of paying taxes', which can be legal (tax avoid-
ance) or illegal (tax evasion). It should be stressed that
the distinction is only terminological, not contextual
Ð in Slovenia all models of the non-payment of
taxes are recognised, and the general term for them
is `tax withdrawal'.
According to Article 147 of the Constitution of the
Republic of Slovenia,
2
taxes, customs and other con-
tributions are prescribed by statute (the legality prin-
ciple in tax law). There are many statutes in Slovenia
which prescribe tax duties for both individuals and
for institutions, but there is no uni®ed codi®cation
of the tax law (for instance a Tax Code). In this
paper, only the most important statutes are examined,
the ones which provide sanctions for violations of their
regulations:
Corporate Pro®t Tax Act;
3
Taxation Procedure Act;
4
Personal Income Act;
5
Value Added Tax Act;
6
Tax Administration Act;
7
Act implementing the customs' regulations of the
European Community;
8
Customs Service Act;
9
Economic Zones Act;
10
Excise Duty Act.
11
Here tax duty means a legal obligation to pay tax,
which must be ful®lled by the taxpayer, otherwise
he/she/it
12
can be punished. Violation of tax duty is
an unlawful action, which is seen in the non-perform-
ance (or incorrect performance) of tax obligations,
provided for by statute. In the Slovenian law system,
there are two types of sanctioned breaches of the tax
law: tax violations and criminal tax oences.
Both categories are examined below.
TAX VIOLATIONS
After becoming independent, the Republic of Slove-
nia adopted completely new regulations for the ®eld
of criminal law in its broadest sense. However, this
process ended with the adoption of the Violations
Act in December 2002.
13
This statute was promul-
gated on 7th February, 2003, but because of the
many changes it contained, it will not be brought
fully into use until 1st January, 2005.
The Violations Act provides general rules for de®n-
ing violations (including tax violations) and the sanc-
tions for them; it further provides general conditions
for liability for violation, for pronouncing and
execution of the sanctions, arranges procedure and
de®nes bodies having competence for deciding on vio-
lations. Thus the Violations Act is a kind of general
overview of violations law. It performs the basis and
Page 173
Journal of Money Laundering Control Ð Vol. 8 No. 2
Journalof Money Laundering Control
Vol.8, No. 2, 2004, pp. 173± 177
#HenryStewart Publications
ISSN1368-5201
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