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Minister of Tourism and Sports, Tonči Glavina, pointed out in HTV's central Dnevnik that it was necessary to make certain changes in order to protect those involved in tourism. He also stated that we are facing hyperinflation of supply compared to the number of guests.
"We are getting to a situation where occupancy is falling every year and we have increasing dissatisfaction of service providers. It was necessary to make certain changes in order to protect all these people who are involved in tourism today so that they can continue to do this business and remain competitive", he said to HTV and emphasized two things that are crucial for calculating taxes:
"Number of days - occupancy in one year and income per bed. We have exact and ideal analytics that practically no one in Europe has. The first part, which is related to occupancy, is related to the eVisitor system, which is clear and precise, and the second part is income per bed, which is reported by the renters themselves. Until now, the tax burden has been extremely low, unfair and undertaxed, some 1 to 2 percent. Now it will be 5 percent. This model we made is absolutely fair for the one who has 10 beds and for the one who has 5 beds. Because the basic parameter is the revenue per bed and not something else", he said.
He pointed out that the complete reform in the matter of tourism is carried out in the magic triangle: tourism policy, tax policy and spatial policy. "Now comes the last step in this year - the amendment of the Act on Catering, where we will make the division we are talking about. That's the procedure we started", said Glavina, adding that the complete tax reform will be implemented in less than six months.
"That says enough about how ready and serious we are. No one will be harmed and we will enable everyone who is working now to continue working, but that we must share certain steps through the tax policy to motivate people to work longer", said the minister, adding that the goal is for Croatia to remain competitive.
"We must not put ourselves in a situation where our relationship between price and quality is out of balance. Our future of tourism is a sustainable year-round tourist destination. It's the only possible way we have. The changes are a bit difficult, but they will achieve our goal of having year-round sustainable tourism", he concluded.
/ / / Glavina: In the summer months, except on the continent, we no longer have room for growth
Small landlords are dissatisfied
Mrs. Lorena completed the 13th season in her family accommodation. In recent years, he says, various benefits have been continuously growing, up to 50 percent per year. Therefore, she welcomed the tax changes with disapproval, as did the majority of owners of family accommodation from Istria to Dalmatia. They suffer, they claim, due to excessive construction of apartment buildings and renting out apartments.
"What we are actually looking for is a classic separation from rentierism, for family accommodation to be something that is traditional for us and to protect the little man, certainly if the taxes are quite high. Especially for someone for whom it is an additional income or even some basic income", she said Barbara Markovic, president of the Croatian Association of Family Accommodation.
And this is mainly the local population in small coastal towns. In Tisno on the island of Murter, for example, the flat tax would now be as much as 5 times higher. "I think that only with this tax increase and that flat rate that the number of deregistered apartments will increase, it means that the number of illegal renters will increase", he emphasized Christian Jareb, mayor of Tisno municipality.
According to the new proposal, the real estate tax would replace the current tax on vacation homes. Its upper limit was 5 euros per square meter, now an upper limit of up to 8 euros has been proposed. But what has caused a real uproar among owners of family accommodation is the new proposal for calculating flat income tax.
Until now, depending on the tourist development of the area, it ranged from 19,91 to 199,08 euros per bed per year. Now that range, in the 4 categories of the tourism development index, would be from 20 to 300 euros. But in the most attractive zones, the lower limit is now 150 euros, which is an increase of as much as 653 percent! This is a big blow to the owners of family accommodation, they believe.
"I am very sorry that the profession did not take part in this whole process, and that the real picture on the ground was not looked at, and that some changes were not gradually brought about through a longer process, as is usually the case with such sudden and large changes. necessary", he expressed dissatisfaction Nedjeljko Pinezić, consultant for family micro-entrepreneurship.
"The experts should also help a little to see, to make it as fair as possible and to see how certain zones are rated in terms of the infrastructure itself, whether there is electricity, water, adequate internet, whether there is rainwater drainage. All this should be included in the calculation when flat taxes are made", she said Lorraine John.
Due to the new tax reform proposal, landlord associations are requesting a meeting with representatives of the Government and relevant ministries in order to protect, they point out, the traditional Croatian tourist product - family accommodation.
/ / / The Institute for Tourism published the Tourism Development Index for 2023
