On 8 February 2019 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered a trial judgment in the case of Duško Latinović et al. finding the accused Duško Latinović guilty of the criminal offense of Tax Evasion or Fraud under Article 210(2) of the Criminal Code of BiH. In that regard, the Court imposed on him a suspended sentence of 6 (six) months of imprisonment, while ordering that the sentence should not be executed unless the accused commits another criminal offense within 2 (two) years of the day when the judgment becomes final.
The accused Duško Latinović was found guilty that during the business year of 2011, as a director on behalf of the legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši, with the intention to groundlessly collect indirect tax return concerning the taxes prescribed by the taxation legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, knowing that IGO-STELL company d.o.o. Laktaši did not carry out any business operations in 2011, that it could not have issued any output invoices and that no turnover was made in terms of Article 4 of the Law on VAT, submitted a VAT form (self-taxation) for the tax period of 01/12/11 – 31/12/11 with false data. Using a fictitious invoice in the amount of 100,421.00 BAM, issued by the legal entity IGO-STELL company d.o.o., in terms of Article 64 of the Law on VAT and Article 16 of the Law on Indirect Taxation Authority, whose box 80 on the mentioned VAT form was marked with “X”, the accused requested from the BiH Indirect Taxation Authority a return of the input VAT in the total amount of 15,045 BAM.
The VAT form completed like that was signed by Željko Latinović as the founder of the foregoing legal entity, while Duško Latinović as the director of the legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši submitted it to the BiH Indirect Taxation Authority, which approved the VAT return to the legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši on 30 January 2012 in the amount of 15,045.00 KM, the amount including the requested VAT return amount of 14,591.00 BAM, in which way the legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši obtained ill-gotten gain and damaged the BiH budget.
The accused Željko Latinović was acquitted of the charges that he committed the criminal offense of Tax Evasion or Fraud under Article 210(2) of the BiH Criminal Code as read with Article 29 of the CC BiH.
The legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši was found responsible for disposing of the ill-gotten gain in the total amount of 14,591.00 KM, which was made on its behalf and to its benefit by Duško Latinović as a person authorized for unlimited representation of the company. In that way, the legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši committed the criminal offense of Tax Evasion or Fraud under Article 210(2) of the CC BiH as read with Article 124 of the Criminal Code of BiH. In that regard, the Court fined the company with 5,000.00 BAM.
Pursuant to Article 110 and 111 of the Criminal Code of BiH, the ill-gotten gain made by the legal entity LATIN DRVO d.o.o. Laktaši, in the amount of 14,591.00 KM, shall be confiscated.
