Seimas approves the one-stop shop for administration of fines
Today, the Seimas approved the draft amendment to the Law on Tax Administration prepared by the Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Inspectorate (STI), by which taxes, economic monetary sanctions, fines and amounts awarded by the court would be administered on a one-stop shop basis via the STI system. This will result in a significant reduction of the costs incurred by people due to debt recovery and the administrative burden.
“Following a positive decision of the Seimas, the liabilities to the State will be administered and recovered on a one-stop-shop basis, transferring this work to the STI. This decision will not only make processes faster, smoother and continuous, but most importantly, it will cost people significantly less. With today’s decision, the Seimas not only reduced the administrative and financial burden on people, but also helped to create a unified, clear system that has so far been decentralised, uncomfortable and expensive,” Minister of Finance Gintarė Skaistė said.
The aforementioned draft amendment implements the reform "One-Stop Shop for Payment of Liabilities to the State" included in the plan "New Generation Lithuania".
After the Seimas made a decision on the proposals today, the STI is tasked with fulfilling not only tax liabilities, but also other liabilities to the state, such as administration of fines for administrative offenses, economic monetary sanctions, procedural fines, amounts awarded by the court and fines for criminal acts. The STI will inform about debts, carry out accounting of liabilities to the state, set off tax overpayments, recover from accounts, and only if recovery fails, transfer recovery to bailiffs.
Applying standardized digital procedures will not only reduce the administrative burden, information will reach residents faster and more conveniently, but also the recovery of debts to the state will become much cheaper for people. Currently, the rates for bailiff services are applied, which for small amounts of debt (up to EUR 60) may exceed the debt itself from 1.8 to 10 times. When debt recovery is carried out by the STI, people will incur costs of only about EUR 2, which are the maintenance fees of the Cash Restrictions Information System (CRIS).
The recovery of all debts, also tax debts, will be handed over to bailiffs by the STI immediately in cases where:
- the bailiff is already conducting recovery of other debts from a person who has assets or income;
- a person does not have bank accounts but has assets or income.
In other cases – recovery would be handed over after 6 months in case within this period total amount were not recovered from the person’s account.
The draft amendment will ensure that all pecuniary obligations to the state reach the budget as soon as possible. These provisions will significantly improve the administration of liabilities to the state:
- on the one hand, the rights of individuals to be informed about their liabilities to the state, recovery procedures will be ensured, voluntary payment of debts will be encouraged, the financial and administrative burden of those who do not hide from recovery will be reduced,
- on the other hand, the STI, having centralized up-to-date information about liabilities to the state, an effective debtor information system and recovery tools, will be able to use them properly and efficiently, i.e., state competences and technical possibilities for administration of liabilities to the state will be used rationally.
Last updated: 28-06-2024
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