Taxes in Croatia

Taxes in Croatia


Taxes in Croatia are worthy to be considered in placing of foreign investments. The most interesting points of Croatian tax systems are:


Company and personnal taxes
1. In case, that your company will hire at least 50 domestic employees and your company will invest at least 20 mil Croatian Kunas (approx. 1 HRK is for 4 CZK, (CZK/USD = cca 21)), your tax rate is 3 %.

2. In case that you will not fulfill above mentioned requirements, you are obliged to pay 20 % as company income tax (in some areas as healthcare, etc., there is decrease of rate to 5 - 10 %).

3. Personnal tax is progressive and varies from 15 - 35 % based upon level of your salary. As in most of Central European countries, you have to also pay Social and Health insurance in percentage of 11,6 % for social insurance and 9 % for health insurance (there are also payments from your employeer - 16,6 % together).

Value added tax
There is only one tax rate of value added tax of 22 % (there are also few items with zero rate but the goods/services to which it relates are limited (as bread, milk,cures,etc.).

Other taxes

See additional information at:

www.lowtax.net
www.carina.hr (Croatian custom office)
www.hak.hr (Information on highway tolls)
www.hnb.hr (Croation National Bank)
www.hgk.hr (Tax overview)

Financial statements in Central Europe

Financial statements in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Adriatic Region

Financial statements
There are three basic financial statements which must be reported at least annually by all companies in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Adriatic Region. These statements are Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Notes to Financial statements.
Cash Flow statement is not required by law but usually is required for all audited companies by external auditors and other users of financial statements.


Structure of financial statements
Structure of above mentioned financial statements is similar to IFRS with more detailed structure than IFRS and based on principles of particular country.

All financial statements must be presented to 6 months after finish of particular accounting period (does not have to be yet audited but must be presented to Commercial register).

How to tax your income in Poland

Taxes in Poland

Taxes in Poland are currently going through significant changes but lets look on current situation:

Commercial profits
Since 2004, there is one rate for taxation of company incomes, which is currently 19 %.
This tax rate is not applied for following:
- incomes from agriculture
- incomes from forestry business

For taxation is crucial place of business or seat of board of directors. In case that the mentioned seats are in Poland, all incomes must be taxed in Poland.

In case of tax losses, they can be transferred for maximum 5 years (but in current year can be deducted only 50 % of tax losses).


Value added tax
There are two basic rates of Value added taxes. The basic is 22 % and the second one is 7 % (for sale of agriculture products, some food, books, etc.).

Dividend incomes
Dividend income is taxed by 19 %.

Personal income taxation
Personal incomes are taxed based on progressive tax rates but in case of indenpendent enterpreneur, you can choose tax rate of 19 %.

Investment information
Poland has strong and volatile stock exchange, called Gielda papierow wartosciowych (see www.gpw.pl). Blue chips are represented by companies as PKN Orlen, TPS, PEO, etc.
The main index is represented by WIG 20 which is represented by 20 most liquid and biggest companies traded in Stock Exchange in Poland.

How to invest in Romania

Romania


Romania, as a new member state of European Union is interesting investmet opportunity for many different investors. Lets look on overview of basic taxes applied in Romania.

Tax overview
In order to increase investment attractivity of Romania, local government decided to significantly decrease basic tax rates. As a result, equal tax has been introduced in rate of 16 %.
As well as in other Central european countries, main taxes are income tax (for entities and physical persons), value added tax and consumption taxes.
(eg. tax deductible items in Romania are of course depreciation, but also advertisement expenses, etc.).

Wage taxes
Employer is obliged to pay 35 % from employees wage (employees pay 17 %).

Other taxes
As previous information are positive, other taxes (which are not directly connected to foreign investments) are significantly high. Interests on funds are taxed by 10 % (which is high as in many European counties is the tax very low).

Value added tax
VAT is in two basic rates, 19 & 9 % (lower rate is for cures, cultural events, etc.).

Other interesting information
Current average wage in Romania is about 140 EUR (but more than 60 % of Romania citizens does not achieve this level). Gross domestic product on citizen is 10 400 USD which could exclude Romania from Emerging market group, but I do think that it is correctly included in group of Emerging countries.

Increasing sectors in Romania
Increasing sectors in Romania are mostly services in tourism, food industry, wood industry, IT services and many other.

For additional information see:
www.tpb.traderom.ro - Bucurest business center providing good information about business in Romania
www.traderom.ro - Romanian center for business support
www.ccir.ro - Business and trade chamber in Romania
www.mfinante.ro - Romanian Ministry of finance
www.sri.ro - Romanian information services

Stock screeners of European Markets

Stock screeners of European markets


Poland Stock Exchange
http://www.gpw.pl/gpw.asp?cel=e_informacje&k=11&i=/gpw/spws/spws1/spisen&sky=1

Baltic Stock Exchange
http://baltic.omxgroup.com/market/?pg=bulletins&bb_id=83

Slovenia Stock Exchange
http://www.ljse.si/cgi-bin/jve.cgi?doc=2974&sid=myOcnIHd3djL7VB3

Czech Stock Exchange
http://www.pse.cz/dokument.aspx?k=Statistic-Files

Prediction of Slovak inflation rate

Predictions of Slovak inflation rate

The predictions of Slovak inflation rate for next two years have been increased by Slovak national bank. Former predictions have been increased by 0.7 % to 3.9 % for 2009 and 3.4 % in 2010 (for current year has been the prediction changed from 2.8 % to 4 %).

There are two main risks that these predictions will not be filled. First is the increase of price of food and increase in price of wages (driven by crude oil and euro introduction).

However most of analysts are optimists and expect that the predictions are too pesimistc and inflation rate should be a little bit lover. Euro should support whole Slovak business and we can expect another nice gains from Slovak business.

Increase of Romanian pensions

Increase of Romanian pensions



Romania plans to significantly pensions to its elderly and long term sick people. The increase in this year should be like 20 % and additional 5-6 % in next year. Even this message is positive for Romanian people, it could have significant impact on hot romanian economy.

The aim of Romania is to get pensions to level of real wages, however it can affect inflation rate and economic development which is currently lead by consumption mostly.

We will see what will be the development in next months, hoever Romanian economics start to show signs of being too hot.

Czech Crown under pressure

Czech Crown under pressure

In last two month, Czech Crown created new record almost each day. Governor of Czech national bank announced that if the development is goint to continue, Czech National Bank will be forced to interfere.

It lead to a short term weakning of Czech Crown, however in these days, the currency comes back to its peaks. This development strenghtens rumours about expected interference of Czech national bank in form of interest rate change.

However, governer expects to change earlies on August. So in these days, Czech Crown could still be good investment opportunity.

Poland Stock Exchange Bluechips

Poland Stock Exchange blue chips

Overview of Stock exchange bluechips in Poland

Romanian Stock Exchange Blue Chips

Romanian Stock Exchange Bluechips

Overview of bluechips at Romania Stock Exchange