The year holds special significance as it marks the tenth anniversary of Serbia’s intensified efforts against tax fraud. Minister Mali emphasized that a comprehensive review of the fiscalization measures and methodologies implemented over the past decade is underway. The results illustrate the growing effectiveness of eFiscalization in streamlining tax compliance and ensuring fairer business practices across the country. As Serbia continues to tighten its fiscal policies, the long-term impact of these efforts may serve as a model for other nations seeking to modernize their tax systems and reduce informal economic activities.  

eFiscalization: A Key Weapon in Serbia’s Fight Against the Grey Economy

During the press conference, Minister Mali underscored the importance of eFiscalization, ranking it among the ten most effective government measures to combat the grey economy. The system allows fiscal cash registers to report fiscal invoices in real time, notifying both citizens and the Tax Administration of any discrepancies. This real-time reporting empowers the Tax Administration to conduct more targeted audits, increasing efficiency and transparency in tax collection.

Mali also highlighted broader reforms, including the overhaul of inspection supervision and the adoption of an EU-compliant Law on Public Procurement. These initiatives are designed to modernize tax and financial systems, with a significant milestone on the horizon—the development of a unified tax application. Within two to three years, Serbian citizens will have a centralized platform to manage all their taxes, allowing them to track their obligations and ensure compliance more easily.

eFiscalization Powering Tech-Driven Audits

The annual report from the Serbian Tax Administration (STA) showcases how technology, through eFiscalization, is revolutionizing audits. The STA leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify non-compliant taxpayers, vastly improving its effectiveness in curbing tax evasion. Every day, the system processes over 10 million fiscal invoices, providing invaluable data such as taxpayer identification, transaction type, and QR codes for verification. This wealth of information allows tax inspectors to approach field audits with detailed insights, making their efforts more precise and efficient.

In 2023, Serbian tax inspectors conducted 8,640 field audits. The results were striking: non-compliant taxpayers faced stiff penalties, including temporary bans on operations for failing to issue electronic fiscal invoices. A total of 4,466 businesses, accounting for 43.44% of retail shops, 39.23% of hospitality businesses, and 10.23% of bakeries, faced penalties. For more serious violations, 488 businesses were temporarily shut down for up to 90 days, with 19 facilities closed for an entire year.

Successes and Challenges: Compliance and Risk Mitigation

While eFiscalization has brought significant successes in curbing tax evasion, there remains a pressing challenge in how the tax administration applies penalties. Recent data from the Serbian Tax Administration (STA) indicates that over 60% of inspected businesses were found non-compliant. The response has been swift and strict, with severe penalties including temporary closures of business operations. However, such measures can create a barrier to fostering a more supportive relationship between the STA and businesses that may simply need additional guidance on compliance.

In our opinion, the STA should consider revisiting its penalty statutes to create a more balanced approach. Rather than relying heavily on punitive actions like temporary business closures for misdemeanors, there should be room for tax inspectors to engage in dialogue and provide sensitization around tax obligations. This would encourage greater understanding and voluntary compliance among businesses, particularly those that may struggle with complex regulations.

By shifting focus from strict penalties to a more educational, supportive approach, the STA could foster a climate of cooperation, helping businesses comply without the risk of severe disruptions. Such a strategy would not only benefit taxpayers but also improve the long-term efficiency and fairness of Serbia’s tax system.

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As the first group of taxpayers transitions to our innovative solution, the benefits are already becoming clear, marking a significant milestone in fiscal modernization.

Why Republika Srpska Needed a Change

Republika Srpska has long been an advocate for fiscalization, having introduced its first system in 2009. While this initial setup served the entity for over a decade, the technology had reached its limits. The old model, based on fiscal memory embedded in cash registers and printers, had become outdated and inefficient in managing the growing complexities of the modern economy.

When the decision was made to upgrade, the Republika Srpska tax administration conducted a thorough search for the most suitable solution. After evaluating global options, they chose our TaxCore® platform— a system already proven to be highly effective in neighbouring Serbia. This decision was a testament to our solution’s ability to handle large-scale fiscalization processes and its potential to address the specific needs of Republika Srpska.

In this case, our team at DTI worked closely with the Republika Srpska Tax Authority to ensure that this transition was not only smooth but also provided tangible benefits to businesses and government alike. The rollout of the new fiscalization system is proceeding on schedule, with more taxpayers set to join in the coming months.

The Advantages of TaxCore®

TaxCore® offers a suite of features that fundamentally improve the fiscalization process. From the outset, one of the key improvements is the automation of taxpayer enrollment. By integrating with SAP’s Treasury and Risk Management (TRM), our system seamlessly feeds from the source of the taxpayer registry, ensuring master data remains intact. Positive side-effect of this process is data cleansing, which is intensified because all taxpayers must update/register every sales point they use to conduct their business. This is all done electronically and makes compliance straightforward for businesses, reducing the administrative burden and allowing them to focus on their core operations.

Another crucial feature of TaxCore® is its ability to maintain a secure electronic journal for everyone. TaxCore® stores all transactions in the tax authority’s database and made verifiable to anyone, including public, for up to ten years, providing a reliable and easily accessible record. This contributes significantly to reducing fraud and increasing compliance, as all transactions are unique and can be verified at any time.

Additionally, TaxCore’s powerful validation system ensures the validation of every transaction in real-time, giving businesses confidence in the recording of their fiscal data, even in case some sales point end up offline. The system also offers comprehensive built-in reporting tools and data export for external BI/AI tools to use, enabling tax inspectors to perform field inspections more efficiently. These reports are equally beneficial for businesses, providing them with clear insights into their fiscal obligations.

Fiscal lottery, a feature not to be missed

One of the most innovative features we’ve integrated into the system is a public participation element—a fiscal lottery. By allowing the public to win prizes for participating, we have effectively created an incentive for citizens to demand fiscal receipts, thereby supporting greater accountability and transparency. This initiative not only benefits the government by promoting compliance but also engages the public in a meaningful way, making them active participants in the fiscalization process.

Vendor Independence and Flexibility: A Key to Success

At DTI, we believe in providing flexible, vendor-independent solutions. This philosophy is reflected in the way we’ve structured TaxCore®, allowing local POS and E-SDC developers to accredit their solutions in our Sandbox environment. In Republika Srpska, 13 developers have already successfully completed the accreditation process, with more expected to follow. This open approach gives businesses the freedom to choose the most suitable fiscal solutions, while still complying with the jurisdiction’s regulations.

One of the standout benefits of our system is its ease of implementation. The Republika Srpska Revenue Authority did not need to hire any additional employees to manage the system. Instead, existing staff were able to seamlessly transition to using TaxCore®, taking on new roles and responsibilities with minimal disruption. This not only reduces administrative costs but also boosts the overall efficiency of the tax authority.

The cost-saving potential for businesses is another important advantage. The new system eliminates several expenses associated with the previous model, such as the need to print control receipts and conduct costly annual maintenance of fiscal devices. By reducing these operational costs, TaxCore® enables businesses to operate more efficiently and with fewer financial burdens.

Our Commitment to Republika Srpska’s Growth

From the beginning, our goal at DTI has been to provide Republika Srpska with a system that meets both current and future needs. We are proud to see that the Revenue Authority has embraced the potential of TaxCore® and is taking proactive steps to support businesses during this transition. By offering subsidies for the initial costs of fiscalization and providing clear, consistent communication to taxpayers, the Tax Authority has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring the success of this initiative.

We’ve also been impressed by the Tax Authority’s dedication to educating taxpayers about the new system. Their public awareness campaigns, which include detailed media announcements and instructional content, have helped businesses and citizens alike understand the benefits of fiscalization and the steps required for compliance. This has contributed to the smooth rollout of TaxCore®, minimizing resistance and enabling broad participation.

_{TaxCore® is a product name of Data Tech International. It provides the back-end functionality for numerous government monitoring systems. For example, in Fiji the VAT Monitoring System (VMS) is powered by TaxCore®, as is the Tax Invoice Monitoring System (TIMS) in Samoa, la facture normalisée (FNE) in Ivory Coast (pilot), and the System for Fiscalization Management (SUF) in Serbia and Republika Srpska.}

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Pour la deuxième année consécutive, le Maroc a organisé sa convention Gitex Africa sous le patronage de Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI, dans la charmante ville de Marrakech. Data Tech International a eu l’honneur d’assister à cette convention, qui s’est avérée être un grand succès.

Qu’est-ce que Gitex et pourquoi est-ce important ?

Gitex signifie, en anglais, « Gulf Information Technology Exhibition » ou Exposition des technologies de l’information du Golfe, et avec Gitex Global, il représente l’évènement technologique et des startups le plus grand et le plus inclusif.

L’Afrique émerge lentement mais sûrement comme un acteur majeur de l’économie numérique mondiale, les experts prévoyant une hausse des investissements technologiques de 115 milliards de dollars à 712 milliards de dollars au cours des 25 prochaines années.

Gitex facilite aux entreprises locales et internationales d’établir une connexion avec les leaders technologiques, gouvernements, startups et investisseurs afin de promouvoir l’innovation et la collaboration. Les sujets vont de la finance numérique à la cybersécurité et à l’avenir de la santé, avec un accent particulier sur l’IA.

L’année dernière, les organisateurs du Gitex ont compté environ 25 000 participants, tandis que les estimations de cette année font état de deux fois plus de participants. Environ 1 500 exposants, entreprises – dont DELL, Huawei, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, Cisco et Epson – entrepreneurs, investisseurs ou startups à la recherche d’investissements, venant de 130 pays, ont assisté au deuxième salon technologique Gitex Africa. Pour animer les discussions, 53 intervenants distinctifs ont été soigneusement choisis pour présenter.

Leçons apprises au cours de la convention

Trouver des partenaires locaux est crucial: Pour réussir en tant qu’entreprise mondiale, il est fondamental d’établir des liens solides et résilients avec des experts locaux. Les entreprises locales peuvent donner des conseils sur la manière de fournir des services plus efficaces, notamment en ce qui concerne les solutions destinées aux gouvernements. Ils offrent un aperçu inestimable des besoins des administrations fiscales, qui sont uniques pour chaque juridiction dans laquelle nous opérons.

L’utilisation des solutions prêtes à l’emploi est un facteur clé: Lorsque les gouvernements tentent de développer leurs propres solutions internes, ils échouent presque certainement. Alternativement, l’utilisation d’une solution prouvée et testée tel que TaxCore s’est avérée être une option plus sûre. Ayant développé et déployé nos solutions dans de nombreuses juridictions à travers le monde, notre savoir-faire cumulé est un aspect clé de notre succès, nous permettant d’éviter les pièges courants et de nous concentrer sur les besoins locaux spécifiques.

Cette expérience a été extrêmement positive puisque les délégués de DTI ont eu la chance d’interagir et de se connecter avec des entreprises locales et internationales qui partagent le même objectif : fournir aux autorités fiscales les solutions les plus avancées et les plus fiables pour les aider dans leur lutte contre l’économie grise, les écarts de revenus, la détection des fraudes, et l’évasion fiscale.

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The Bolivian Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Mario Cazón Morales inaugurated the meeting. Afterwards, the main event’s organizers, including Mr. Vinicius Pimentel de Freitas, Chief Technology Officer in CIAT (Panamá), and Mr. Raúl Zambrano, Technical Assistance and Information Technology Director in CIAT (Panamá) proceeded to host the event.

Presentations from all over the globe

The Radisson Hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra welcomed 33 delegations from countries around the world including Brazil, Angola, Malaysia, Morocco, Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Kenia, Panama, Portugal, Dominican Republic or Uruguay.

Most countries held presentations highlighting experiences and lessons they learned after fiscalizing the economy in their countries. However, the presentations didn’t just include Tax Administrations, as private companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Data Tech International took part on them to present their own solutions and experiences.

DTI’s presentation

DTI’s CEO, Mr. Goran Todorov, delivered the company’s presentation on the topic “Data Tech International Solutions for Tax Administrations”. During the presentation, Mr. Todorov gave the audience a general introduction to the company, followed by a review of TaxCore’s benefits for the Tax Administrations, TaxCore’s interoperability, and the assurance of its business continuity under any circumstances. The presentation also covered the use of the blockchain technology to carry out audits and help with fraud detection and verification, the Customer Compliance Award Program (CCA) to help detect fraud by customers, the use of reports and business intelligence (BI) to help collect and analyze useful data, a look into some of the cases the Tax Administration detected by using this technology, as well as the concept of the unitary invoice.

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Data Tech International is pleased to have sponsored and participated in the ESTIEM’s student conference – LXIV Council Meeting, which took place on 2nd – 9th of May in Belgrade, Serbia.

ESTIEM, or the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management, is a non-profit organization for Industrial Engineering and Management students that combines technological understanding with management skills. Founded in 1990, its goal is to foster relations between IEM students and support their development.

In early May, hundreds of ESTIEM-ers from 26 different countries came to Belgrade for their annual council meeting.

Opening ceremony

An open-air ceremony welcomed all the students at the event and exposed them to beautiful elements of Serbian culture. Members of DTI staff joined in the warm greeting and invited the participants to join them in all the meeting events. The entire ceremony was covered by the media.

Networking Brunch

The Networking Brunch is an informal gathering that took place on May 5th. Participants were free to ask DTI about anything about the company and the way DTI does business. Many students were interested in internship opportunities. DTI also prepared a lot of surprises and gifts for the participating students.

Workshop – Thinking outside of the box: from the first idea to the global solution

For the workshop, DTI selected the topic in line with the spirit of our company vision and achievements: Thinking outside of the box: from the first idea to the global solution.

The workshop lasted for 2 hours, and it gave the participants an opportunity to discuss the importance of diversity, cultural awareness, and design thinking when developing a product for the global market.

During the workshop, the students were solving a mini case study devised by DTI. To that end, the participants were divided into smaller groups for discussion, after which each team presented its solution.

In parallel, we also used an online tool to collect as many different inputs as possible from participants on the topic.

ESTIEM Forest

The CSR event stands out as a really special part of ESTIEM’s project. Wishing to add an ecological dimension to the Council Meeting, the organization team came up with the idea to realize a project of planting an entire ESTIEM forrest.

ESTIEM has plans for various other environmental initiatives that DTI, as an exclusive partner, will certainly be involved in.

In conclusion, the experience overall was a very positive one, as the main objective that was proposed before the Council Meeting started was dully achieved: to bring the subject of fiscalization to the attention of the young generation, to raise their awareness of the fight against the gray economy so that they can promote its use in their home countries.

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And although this is very much correct, revolutionizing, digitalizing, and modernizing systems that are based on bureaucracy does come with a small price. A price that some businesses are not willing to pay, mostly out of fear. This sounds reasonable – after all, we are used to complicated systems that are often dysfunctional. So even a bare mentioning of importing something new makes taxpayers and business owners resist in fear.

Nobody enjoys drowning in paperwork and documentation, much less going from bureau to bureau only to collect stamps and signatures that are basically irrelevant to the applicant. And that is exactly what TaxCore is all about – making sure that these practices as far as paper journals and archiving remain in the past, and letting technology take care of the rest.

Being Modern Requires Being Modernized First

Every single business has one aim, and that is catering to its target audience. The point is to always offer more and to make it easier for its customers – whoever and wherever they may be. And customers will constantly demand better because they expect the business they put their trust in to be in touch with the advancements of the world.

So naturally, once a certain country makes a decision to revolutionize its tax collection and fiscalization systems, the people involved expect that all the businesses and vendors follow up. Some may perceive it as challenge and some as advantage.

Once Samoa and Fiji decided to team up with Data Tech International and start using our platform, TaxCore, some changes were due. Businesses now must register all their sales points and vendors must go through the accreditation process for assurance that they are electronic sales suppression (ESS) free. Objective is to determine that they follow the fiscalization requirements imposed by the local Tax Authority. Therefore, businesses become qualified and compliant to work in this new environment.

Resistance is inevitable – a handful of businesses tried to find reasoning as to why they should go through accreditation and why it is necessary. This tends to put immense pressure on both the Local Government and Tax Authority.

It is important to mention that abiding by the law when it comes to taxes and fiscalization is not a choice, it is a civic duty, and business owners are no exception when it comes to it.

Is fining taxpayers the way forward?

In 1^st world countries, this almost never presents a problem. Taxpayers who own businesses are well aware of the consequences if they try to resist the fiscalization laws, governments will fine them and their business will suffer.

These fines and just how strict they are depends on the government – whether they are high and unforgiving or more of an educational tool to teach the taxpayers they must abide. Either way, it sets the rules clear; the Tax Authority and the Government define the law, and the citizens abide.

In developing economies, things sometimes take a different turn. In many cases, tax offices in the developing countries often behave as the middleman between the government and taxpayers. It comes off as if the tax offices in these countries are unaware of the authority they present, much less their duty to the country. But, is there a way to motivate businesses to go through accreditation? Fining taxpayers does the trick in some countries, but perhaps other countries can find a different method.

What Do Taxpayers Get from Accreditation?

The method of fining those who don’t abide by the law appears to be working in strong systems that don’t favor. Many developing economies are still in the process of creating such grounds, so perhaps making taxpayers realize how much they get by transferring to the new fiscalization system could help.

So, what is it exactly that business owners get with the new TaxCore system? Well, the benefits are plentiful:

• They will be protected from unfair competition
• The cost of compliance is minimized, as digital audit trail is on the government’s tab
• Eliminates the need for receipts and invoices in paper format, which saves a lot of money
• Management has better insight into business operations preventing classic employee theft
• Promotion of their business through the CCA (Customer Compliance Award) Program

These are only but a few of the many benefits business owners get the moment they make a transition, in many cases seamlessly, to the new system. They can easily cut all the unnecessary money outcomes and have better control of their staff and operations.

How about Vendors?

We would think most businesses would fulfill government requirements the moment specifications are published, as technical changes are not impossible to make. However, it’s the taxpayers who pay for their time, not the government.

In the ECR/POS/ERP industry there are so much diversity and the price ranges go from low to sky rocketing. Sometimes just a change request from a taxpayer would result in astronomical fees for engagement of developers and testers to rollout updates at all sales points. This has prevented some businesses to modernise as they couldn’t keep up with the expenses.

Fiscalization came as an opportunity for some to force updates. Some vendors did this for free because this request to accredit didn’t come from their customers but from the jurisdiction itself where their product is operating. And we expect this as the only way to retain customer, right?

Ethical behaviour vs maximising profits

Failing to comply and go through the accreditation, specifically in countries that operate with TaxCore, results in being unable to develop a business any further. As a business owner, this means losing customers and losing the market to those who complied in time.

Moreover, governments will fine these businesses, and these fines are high enough to present a problem for any business. And if that doesn’t prove to be enough, a business risks being shut down completely, with a jail sentence for the owner(s).

By embracing the new fiscal system, you allow your business to grow and you’re proving your customers their money’s worth. But what is your vendor is dragging feet or asking you for astronomical figure to cough up for upgrade? Firstly you should look at your support and maintenance contract, is there anything in there that obliges your vendor to comply with legislative (tax) requirements? If yes, then this is the case. If not, perhaps you should consider alternative solution and change the vendor.

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