Kiss: Tax Authority to Refund Langos Vendor Due to Procedural Errors (2)

Bratislava, 18 May (TASR) - Financial Administration (FS) will halt inspection proceedings against a vendor of langos (deep-fried flatbread) from Kvetoslavov (Bratislava region) and refund the €1,500 fine that he's already paid, as procedural errors uncovered by an internal FS investigation have made it impossible to continue the inspection process, said FS president Jozef Kiss at a press conference on Monday. Kiss was referring to the case of the langos vendor who received a fine of €1,500 because the receipt that he issued lacked a diacritic mark. The case caught tabloid headlines and elicited public outrage along with satirical online memes. "We carried out an internal review of the inspectors' procedures, and procedural errors were indeed identified. These stemmed from the fact that one reason for imposing the sanction was stated in the inspection record, while another reason, or not exactly the same reason, was given in the decision on the fine," explained Kiss. According to the FS president, the success of any further legal dispute with the entrepreneur would depend on this procedural flaw. He announced that FS will issue a ruling on the entrepreneur's appeal on Monday and that the decision will be in the entrepreneur's favour. At the same time, Kiss stressed that the inspection itself was conducted strictly in line with the provisions of the law on sales registration and that the entrepreneur had breached the law. "It is clear that a cash register receipt must contain the details required by law, and the law also sets a minimum fine. Therefore, I want to state that the FS employees who carried out this specific inspection were enforcing the legal standard. They didn't make anything up and did no extra work beyond what the law required," Kiss underlined. He admitted that the current wording of the law is not in line with business practice, is not entirely clear and that penalties for different offences aren't balanced. Financial Administration has already prepared a proposal for legislative amendments, which is currently undergoing internal consultation before being submitted to the Finance Ministry. "We want to address the ambiguity of this law and above all ensure that fines imposed for breaches are proportionate and balanced according to the seriousness of the offence. If it concerns diacritics or punctuation, the fine will naturally be lower. If it concerns undeclared revenues, we are proposing higher fines," said Kiss. He again emphasised that undeclared revenues are a major problem in Slovakia. He pointed to the case of langos sales, noting that 640,000 pieces of langos are sold annually in the country. Tax officials compared this with data from vendors' cash registers. "We found that 1,474 vendors are either selling or registering sales of as little as one langos per day in their cash registers," said the FS president. As for the case and its consequences, Kiss apologised to the FS employees and inspectors who have faced heavy pressure and, in some cases, death threats. He also apologised to entrepreneurs for the ambiguity of the legislation and specifically to the vendor from Kvetoslavov, whom he plans to meet personally. "I will apologise to him for the consequences that he's to bear with respect to this case. There is certainly no reason to apologise for the breach of the law itself, because he also confirmed that he violated the law in the inspection record, in which he clearly stated that the cash register and printer were not in the condition required," added Kiss. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final five paragraphs mf/df