On 02.06.2022 the Director of the Public Revenue Office, Ms. Sanja Lukarevska, participated in the event for presenting the results of the IPA project "Improving Revenue Collection, Tax and Customs Policy".

The event was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the Republic of North Macedonia H.E. Georg Woutsas and the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Republic of North Macedonia H.E. Nives Tiganj.
A word for the Twinning project had also the Head of Department for Cooperation at the Office of the Delegation of the European Union in Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Steffen Hudolin, the Deputy Minister of Finance Mr. Filip Nikoloski, the Director of the Public Revenue Office Ms. Sanja Lukarevska and the Director of the Customs Administration Ms. Slavica Kutirov.

The Director Lukarevska emphasized that such projects strengthen the capacity of the Public Revenue Office, enable modernization of processes and create conditions for strengthening the relations between the institutions and countries that are part of this project. As Ms. Lukarevska explained, this is of a great importance not only for the Public Revenue Office but also for our country.

“Gaining “Know-how“ is perhaps the most valuable thing, because in that way, not only the capacities are strengthened, but also the best practices in terms of tax administration are obtained, as well as adjustments that need to be made in the area of legislation. Through such projects and signing of acts for mutual cooperation, we enabled the exchange of experiences, reduction of bureaucracy, as well as encouraging voluntary compliance.

Through this project, the employees strengthened their capacities and gained new knowledge and practices regarding newest possibilities of prevention and risk assessment in VAT procedures, implementation of BEPS, and strengthening the capacity of the Contact Center.
The purpose is approaching to the taxpayers with greater transparency in operations, then adjustment to the trends and risks arising from e-commerce, strengthening human resources and a new knowledge that will be applied through the Tax Academy", said Lukarevska.

The Ambassador Voutsas, and the Ambassador Tiganj pointed out that despite the fact that due to the pandemic, the project was fully implemented online, they are satisfied with the achieved results. "It is of great importance to have advanced and unified tax administrations and that was the main goal of this project," said Ambassador Voutsas.
Ambassador Tigan clarified that Republic of Croatia will continue with the cooperation and thus will directly affect the modernization of the capacities of the tax and customs administrations in our country.

The IPA Twinning Project “Improving Revenue Collection, Taxation and Customs Policy" is under the auspices of the European Union, in cooperation with the Austrian and Croatian Ministries of Finance. It has been implemented starting from January 2020 and its realization took place online. Although this way of functioning is not typical for such projects, all participants in the project gave maximum contribution to its implementation and by the Delegation of the European Union it was pointed out as one of the most successful projects. The project is divided into 4 components: component for harmonization of legislation in the field of taxation and customs with EU legislation, EU standards and practices under the legislation of EU member states, component for conducting analysis and forecasting of tax policy, component for customs and tax component.