Tax refunds only upon request

Ordinance 61/2002 on budgetary debt collection in effect since January 1, 2003 has finally got enforcement guidelines published in the Official Gazette. Article 19 of the ordinance specifies that the taxpayers (both individuals and corporations) are entitled to interest on refunds only after 30 days from the moment they submitted a written refund or compensation application to the proper authorities. The Finance Ministry specifies the refunding resulted from the tax decisions issued in 2002 for the incomes registered by taxpayers in 2001 shall be done according to Ordinance 7/2001 on income tax, which does not require submission of a refund application. The provisions of Article 19 in Ordinance 61/2002 on budgetary debt collection cover the tax refunds resulted from the tax decisions issued as of 2003. Therefore all the taxpayers eligible for refunds will have to file an application to get the refunds in question, as of 2003. ZF