They raised 1.8 million euros from e-commerce

The Tax Administration (PU) in cooperation with the National Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) collected EUR 1.8 million in unpaid taxes from companies that used the e-commerce services of Atlas Bank, which declared bankruptcy in 2019.

This information was officially announced by this state institution.

The prosecutor’s office led by Milivoje Katnić blocked EUR 62.7 million in 2018 from companies using the Atlas banka e-commerce service, as well as during the investigation against the bank’s owner Duško Knežević and his associated persons and companies, due to suspicions of money laundering and tax evasion.

After initiating the investigation, PU initiated e-commerce control procedures at 130 companies, which resulted in decisions to collect tax debts in the amount of EUR 32 million.

The Administrative Court confirmed the PU’s decisions on the existence of a tax liability in the amount of EUR 32 million, while tax audits established a total tax liability of almost EUR 42 million.

“The PU has taken all measures of compulsory collection from the jurisdiction of the above-mentioned taxpayers, in accordance with the law. After the procedure before the competent authorities of Montenegro is completed, it will be known when and what part of the disputed amount will be collected. In the previous period, an audit was carried out on the correctness of determining, reporting and payment of tax liabilities of tax debtors for the tax period of 2017 and 2018. Control supervision was carried out at 37 taxpayers and income tax liabilities were established in accordance with legally binding decisions for the tax period of 2017 in the amount of about 26.9 million euros, while corrections based on the conducted audits for the tax period of 2018 amount to about 11.2 million euros. In cooperation with SDT, on the basis of e-commerce, about 1.8 million euros were collected,” the PU reported.

SDT did not answer Vijesti’s question as to whether the legal conditions for transferring the money, for which there are final judgments of the Administrative Court, to the PU account had been met.

The SDT indictment in the “e-commerce” case includes 108 individuals and 248 legal entities. They were accused of creating a criminal organization, money laundering, tax and contribution evasion.

Katnić claimed that the state budget was damaged by the e-commerce service Atlas Bank to the tune of 120 million euros. He also said that Atlas Bank, through e-commerce, had a profit of 800 million euros, and other banks that use this type of service earned around 120 million euros.

Knežević denied the accusations and stated that Katnić had not learned to distinguish between trading and profit, emphasizing that e-commerce is completely legal and is conducted in accordance with all the rules.

“Due to doubts about the functioning of the Atlas Bank e-commerce service, we immediately indicated that our activity is open to all inspections by the relevant state authorities and that it has passed all supervision by national and international regulators. Therefore, we believe that the regularity of the bank’s activity, considered a carrier of global trends in electronic banking in Montenegro, will be confirmed very soon. We are sure that this will be the finding of the interim administration, which we consider to be the result of incomprehensible actions of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which are the result of media speculation motivated by interests and which ultimately constitute unlawful pressure on the institutions of the system. Until now, we have had very constructive cooperation with the Central Bank. CBCG took care of the reputation of both banks and confirmed that no illegal activities took place in the e-commerce business. Our clients from abroad, whose activity was blocked by the SDT, were candidates for economic citizenship. Now they are facing legal violence against them and their legally employed persons in Montenegro. The prosecutor’s office refuses to provide information to its lawyers, everything is covered by confidentiality, therefore legal representatives cannot work on their defense,” Knežević said earlier.

( Marija Mirjacic )