THE STATUTORY TAX GARANTEE IN THE LIGHT OF GENERAL TAX ACT AMMENDMENTS’ 2012.: PIERCING THE CORPORATE VEIL FOR TAX PURPOSES

Autori su se u ovom radu odlučili na istraživanje jednog instituta hrvatskog općeg poreznog prava, zakonskog poreznog jamstva, s posebnim naglaskom na njegove izmjene, kako materijalnopravne tako i postupovnopravne, po stupanju na snagu prve novele OPZ-a iz 2012. godine. Novelom se širi krug zakonskih jamaca za porezne obveze trgovačkih društava, i to na članove društva, članove uprave i izvršne direktore društva te s njima povezanih osoba, ukoliko se u posebnom dijelu poreznog postupka utvrdi da su zloporabom svojih prava ili ovlasti uzrokovali nemogućnost naplate poreznog duga od društva kao glavnog poreznog dužnika. Prikazuju se i kritički preispituju novelirane odredbe kojima se uvodi tzv. „proboj pravne osobnosti“ u OPZ, s posebnim osvrtom na postupovna pitanja koja bi mogla izazvati probleme u njihovoj primjeni. Prikaz zakonskih odredbi koje uređuju postupak dokazivanja zloporabe prava u porezno-dužničkom odnosu bio je i povod preispitivanju alternativnog pristupa problemu zloporabe prava te mogućnosti uvođenja općeg pravila o zabrani zloporabe u hrvatsko porezno pravo.The authors of this paper examine the issue of statutory tax guarantee, as an institute of the Croatian general tax law. Particular attention is given to substantive and procedural changes following the first Amendments to the General Tax Act of 2012. The Amendments introduced new categories of statutory guarantors for tax liabilities of companies. This refers to company members, board members and executive directors and associated parties, whose abuse of rights and powers has resulted in the company’s inability to pay the tax debt. The liability of the above mentioned persons must be determined in a special form of tax procedure exhaustively regulated as part of the tax procedure. Likewise, the provisions of the General Tax Act that introduce the piercing of the corporate veil are reviewed, while taking into consideration procedural issues which may cause problems in their application. This gives cause for exploring an alternative approach to the tax abuse issues, namely the possibility of introducing general anti-abuse rule (GAAR) in Croatian tax law