AmCham Macedonia Winter 2016 (issue 48) | Page 15

15,000 10,000 ANALYSIS 5,000 - Recent Tax Inspection Trends and Questions 2006 The number and impact of tax inspections have been under a great deal of scrutiny in recent years. However, the Public Revenue Authority’s (PRO) own annual reports reveal that the total number of inspections has stabilized over the past few years, dropping sharply from 2006-09, as shown below. The number of irregularities discovered during these inspections has also not varied widely since 2007. According to PRO’s 2014 annual report, just 40% (or 2,849) of the 7,194 total inspections that year resulted in confirmed irregularities. 2007 2008 2009 2012 2013 2014 € 14,167,612 € 9,441,441 € 4,516,874 € 4,448,816 2011 2012 € 1,251,168 2010 2013 2014 Source: Public Revenue Authority annual reports 2006-2014 downloaded from http://ujp.gov.mk/mk/osnovni_dokumenti/category/113. Starting with the 2013 report, UJP began showing which portion of fines were related to failure to use cash reg- isters. Namely, in 2012, 51.7% of all issued fines were due to this misdemeanor. In 2013, this share fell slightly to 49.2% and in 2014, 44.3% of all issued fines were related to failure to process incoming cash as dictated by law. Unfortunately, PRO said it was not able to respond to the following Emerging Macedonia information requests at this time: • Data for 2009 and previous years, in order for us to understand the longer run trend; Macedonian PRO Inspection Trends 2006-14 30,000 # of inspections • An explanation of the 1032% increase in issued misdemeanour fines issued between 2010-14; • The average fine amount issued in each year; # of inspections with confirmed irregularities 20,000 2011 Total PRO-issued Fines in Misdemeanor Cases (estimated EUR) PRO reports do confirm, however, that a dramatic change has occurred in recent years in the total amount of fines issued in misdemeanor cases. Though no data were provided for 2006-09, the PRO reports that the total amount of fines issued in misdemeanor cases increased 1032% in just 5 years, starting in 2010 and ending 2014, as seen below. 25,0