Boteva & Kantutis Law Office Newsletter December 2015

Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code

 

On 04 December 2015 in State Gazette issue 94/2015 were published the latest amendments to the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code.

 

The amendments are divided into three major groups, which are, as follow:

 

I. Rules adopted with the purpose to optimize the process on the calculation of the taxes and the obligatory insurance instalments and to easing the inter-institutional cooperation

 

Among the main amendments in this group are:

 

–          Broadening the list of third persons liable under the law in case facts and circumstances are hidden, which is mandatory to be announced before the tax authorities and which results in non-payment of due taxes or mandatory insurance contributions – to the existing management bodies liable under the law are included commercial representatives, authorised by the managers persons, etc.

 

–          Explicit regulation of the mandatory electronic store of accounting and commercial information

 

–          Broadening of the list of authorities entitled to access the tax and social security information – to the existing National Revenue Agency, the President, the Prosecutor General, the Directors of National Social-Security Institute and Customs Agency, are included the OLAF’s Director General, certain customs bodies and the Minister of Finance.

 

II. Rules adopted with the purpose to optimisethe legal regime on forcible collection of public debts

 

Among the main amendments in this group are:

 

–          A new measure for forcible collection of public debts is introduced – the electronic restraint of debtor’s bank accounts for collection of such debts;

 

–          Optimisation of the procedure for imposing a restraint on shares of a legal entity.

III. Rules imposing new responsibilities for the financial institutions to provide National Revenue Agency with certain financial information regarding maintained financial accounts

The main purpose of the amendments was the transposition of Directive 2014/107/EU amending Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation as well as implementation of the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA US Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FATCA), which introduce a reporting regime for financial institutions with respect to certain accounts.

The proposed changes will effectively lead to the creation of an automated system for transfer of information between the Bulgarian, the member states’ and the US internal revenue agencies. The information to be shared relates to financial accounts held in Bulgarian financial institutions. Bulgaria shall annually exchange information about the account balance with the member states as well as with the United States on an automatic basis.

The information that must be disclosed includes (i) identifying features of the account holder, including name, address, tax number and account number; (ii) available funds in the account; and (iii) information about the financial institution itself.

 

In our commitment to render best possible business solutions Boteva & Kantutis provides a regular update for clients and other interested parties on legal and business activities in Bulgaria.

For further information on the contents of this Newsletter please contact us at the address below:

2 Nikolay Pavlovich Str.         Tel.: 359 2 9897290, 9861938

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