A debate on the Draft of the Law on determining the origin of property and special tax was held within the General Seminar on March 20th 2019. The participants were: Radomir Ilić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Dr Dragan Demirović, Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Miroslav Đinović, Director of the Large Taxpayers’ Office of the Tax Administration, as well as teachers from our Faculty, Professor Dr Dejan Popović and Assistant Professor Dr Svetislav V. Kostić. The Director of the General Seminar, Assistant Professor Dr Miloš Zdravković was the moderator. Miroslav Đinović has briefly presented the basic principles of the Draft of the Law on determining the origin of property and special tax and underlined that the goal of the Work group has been for the future Law to be clear and therefore easy to implement. Prof. Dr Dejan Popović and Ass. Prof. Dr Svetislav Kostić have pointed out that they welcome the passage of this law, but they have also pointed out the shortcomings of the text of the Draft and have warned against the negative effects that its implementation in an unaltered form would bring in the future. There were warnings regarding the inadequacy of the existing system of gathering data that would be necessary for the implementation of the Law, of the difficulties in identifying the taxpayers’ property that is situated abroad, of the problematic sharing of the burden of proof in the procedure, of the elements of unconstitutionality of the Law, of the insufficient level of protection of the taxpayers’ data that the Law guarantees etc.

The hosts of the General Seminar and the audience have expressed gratitude to the government representatives that have shown readiness to debate the Draft of the Law and its potential improvements with the representatives of the academic community and expert public. The attendance was high, so alongside the students the audience included representatives of the expert public – renowned law offices, auditor firms, banks, as well as professors and associates from our Faculty and other faculties. After the presentation of the participants, a very lively discussion had developed on the subject of the presentation by the attendees of the General Seminar. The general conclusion was that the removal of the noticed shortcomings of the Draft is necessary, so that the implementation of the Law would come to life in full, especially considering the fact that similar instruments that our legislation prescribed in the past have remained a dead letter.