PROFIT (CORPORATE) TAX PARTICIPATION İN THE TAX SYSTEM OF THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

Taxes are treated as involuntary payments paid by individuals or entities to the accounts of central or local government bodies and institutions. There are a variety of taxes depending on the legal system, but almost everyone agrees that they remain one of the key sources of filling the country’s budget. Taxes on corporate income are extremely complex. When it comes to profit tax, generally it is a tax imposed on the net income of the company. Recently, the European Commission in December 2021 proposed a Directive ensuring a minimum effective tax rate for the global activities of large multinational groups. It includes a common set of rules on how to calculate this effective tax rate, so that it is properly and consistently applied across the European Union (EU). The purpose of this paper is through normative and economic analysis, both empirical and theoretical, to process the official data from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank (WB) and Public Revenue Office of the Republic of North Macedonia, in order to provide a clear overview of the current state of the foreseen tax rates as well trends of profit tax collection. Research in terms of object is branched in two directions: global and local. In the global aspect, the current situation during the last year (2021) is analyzed, relying on the ranking of the countries based on the highest, i.e. the lowest statutory corporate income tax rates (starting from the reflection of the situation in continents and then across concrete countries). In the local aspect, the research deals with the state of corporate taxes in the Republic of North Macedonia in the period of the previous law (2003-2013) and the period after the adoption of the law in force (2014-2021). To achieve the aforementioned goals, the author has focused on the use of some of the scientific methods, of which the most expressed are: the method of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, normative, comparative, historical and empirical method. The analysis of statistical data provides results that argue three existing facts: (1) at a comparative level, the Republic of North Macedonia is part of the group of countries with the lowest corporate tax rate; (2) the collection (payment) of profit tax in recent years proves a serious trend of continuous growth; (3) compared to the two most prominent forms of tax, personal income tax and value added tax, profit tax continues to show serious setbacks based on the collected values of these taxes in denars.