BRATISLAVA, December 28, (WEBNOVINY) — Communication of citizens and businesses with tax administration authorities will undergo major changes as of next year. From January 1, 2012, a completely new organization, Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic is to be established by merging tax and customs authorities. Finance Minister Ivan Miklos gave assurances at a news conference on Wednesday that the changes will not mean lower accessibility of services of tax administrators but just the opposite is true as the financial administration will be more pro-client. “The aim is to create a new, more effective, better working system of organizing and managing the collection of government revenue,” said the minister.
The new Financial Administration will comprise of the Financial Directorate, tax authorities, customs authorities, Financial Authority Criminal Bureau and the Financial Operations Competence Center. From 2012, the Financial Administration organizational structure will comprise the Financial Directorate, eight tax authorities in county seats with tax office branches and their contact points. Taxpayers will also be able to use one tax authority for selected taxpayers in Bratislava and eight customs offices in county seats together with their branches and customs stations. Michalovce Customs Authority, Financial Authority Criminal Bureau and the Financial Operations Competence Center will also be part of the new structure.
The transformation of the current tax and customs authorities into the new Financial Administration will not worsen accessibility of services to people, said the minister adding that the network of tax offices and their subsidiaries and contact points will copy their current location. Though formally a taxpayer will become a client of a tax office in the county capital, all matters will be handled just as so far, whether in the seat of the tax office, at its subsidiary or at a contact point. From January 1, 2012, 39 tax office branches and 42 contact points will be created in order to provide operations of the tax authorities in the scope of the counties while from the beginning of 2013, tax administration is to undergo another phase of changes with merging current tax and customs offices into new financial offices.
Changes however will be done also to the formal communication of taxpayers with tax offices. They are currently sending taxpayers new identification numbers that will serve as personal account number that a taxpayer will use. When paying a tax, the differing prefix of the account will be used to distinguish individual types of taxes.
SITA