Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective – Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures 2023

Croatia

Recent developments relating to MAP in Croatia prior to 15 August 2023

Developments relating to MAP in the tax treaty network

• Croatia updated its MAP guidelines and introduced a documented bilateral notification process. Accordingly, Croatia applies its notification process for future cases in which its competent authority considered the objection raised in a MAP request not to be justified and when the tax treaty concerned does not contain Article 25(1) of the OECD Model Tax Convention as amended by the Action 14 final report. Accordingly, Croatia is introducing, in its newly negotiated treaties, an alternative provision on bilateral notification process.

Other developments relating to MAP

• Croatia updated its MAP guidelines in 2022.

Latest Action 14 Peer Review report

26 July 2021 - https://doi.org/10.1787/7a89e6e4-en

Tax treaty network of Croatia

• 65 treaties, applicable to 66 jurisdictions (covering all treaties signed, although not necessarily in force)

• status of MLI: in force.

Table 1. State of play of Croatia's tax treaty network

Treaties in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard following MLI impact	Treaties where actions are ongoing to make them in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard	Following impact/actions, remaining treaties that are not in line with Action 14 Minimum Standard
60	3	2

Source: OECD

Croatia's MAP programme

Organisation of competent authority function

• two persons working on MAP cases

  • One head of unit

  • Two persons working on MAP cases (all of which work on other tasks as well)

  • One person works on attribution/allocation cases and one person works on other cases

• contact persons for MAP requests:

  • Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Finance, Croatian Tax Administration, Central office, Boskoviceva 5, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia Phone: [phone] / Fax: [phone] / Email: [e-mail].

Figure 1. Competent Authority Organisational Structure

Source: OECD

Table 2. Guidance on the MAP process

MAP guidance	Smjernice za postupak zajedničkog dogovaranja, ažurirano 2022. (Guidelines for MAP, updated 2022)	https://www.porezna-uprava.hr/Dokumenti%20vijesti/Postupak%20zajedni%C4%8Dkog%20dogovaranja%20.pdf (Section 4.1.2. to be referred to for form and content of a MAP request, including information requirements)
MAP profile	15 September 2023	https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/croatia-dispute-resolution-profile.pdf

Overview of Croatia's MAP Statistics for 2022

Please refer to https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/map-statistics-croatia.pdf for details with respect to Croatia's MAP Statistics.

Figure 2. Cases closed in 2022

Source: OECD

Figure 3. Evolution of Croatia's MAP caseload (2016-22)

Source: OECD

Table 3. Overview of Croatia’s MAP caseload for 2022

Inventory for year 2022	Opening Inventory 1/1/2022	Cases started	Cases Closed	End Inventory 31/12/2022
Attribution/allocation cases	6	4	2	8
Other cases	13	2	4	11
Total	19	6	6	19

Source: OECD

Table 4. Croatia’s average time to resolve MAP cases in 2022

Cases resolved in year 2022	Pre-2016 cases		Post-2015 cases		All
	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time
Start to End
Attribution / Allocation cases	0	N/A	2	23.61	2	23.61
Other cases	1	53.00	3	16.07	4	25.30
All cases	1	53.00	5	19.08	6	24.74

Source: OECD