“On Monday, the 1st of July 2022, an acquaintance forwarded the interview of the Acting Director-General of the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Peter Grum, that he gave to the newspaper Finance to me. Even though I have already told Peter Grum that it is best if he just leaves me alone, he cannot help but evaluate my work, even though he does not know much about it. I would like to stress that Peter Grum is not in a position to evaluate my work. Only the taxpayers and the employees of the Financial Administration who worked with me can properly assess this,” former Director-General of the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Ivan Simič, said in his response to the lies of Acting Director of the Financial Administration, Peter Grum.
“It is a fact that when I was in charge of the Financial Administration – twice in Slovenia and once in Serbia – I always had a good relationship with the employees, despite my high level of seniority. I was aware of the fact that when I took office, the countdown to the moment of my departure started. Thus, anyone who wanted to could come to me. They could tell me about what they want, give comments and offer suggestions. I was always happy to receive criticism because it meant that we could improve things even further,” Ivan Simič wrote in the introduction of his latest blog post.
“I consider Peter Grum’s statement referring to me, namely, that he now hopes that after his return, the atmosphere at the Financial Administration has improved, to be the first in a series of untruths. The truth is that throughout the time when I was the Director-General of the Financial Administration, any employee could come to me, could say what they wanted, could point out what was wrong, and I was always happy to listen. My door was always open. I have brought a relaxed approach to the work of the Financial Administration, which has been confirmed by the many employees and taxpayers who noticed this change. Peter Grum’s assertion that employees did not dare to say anything at the time is simply not true.”
“Peter Grum’s attitude towards the employees of the Financial Administration, and especially towards the financial inspectors, is also reflected in his reaction to a rather harsh letter from the Trade Union of Civil and Social Bodies of Slovenia of the 29th of November 2019. Namely, the President of the trade union, Frančišek Verk, wrote a long letter to the then-Minister of Finance, Dr Andrej Bertoncelj, and State Secretary Natalija Kovač Jereb, which clearly outlined and described the years of the escalating and inadmissible pressures on employees of the financial administration, especially on financial inspectors,” Simič explained in his blog, adding that this letter was also sent to the Financial Administration, but the management, part of which was also Peter Grum, did not respond to it.
Those who are happy at the Financial Administration today, are the people whom Grum put in top positions
“The rare few people who are happy at the Financial Administration today are probably the ones who were put in top positions by Peter Grum and form a ring around him. This is mainly a team that was already in these or similar positions when Peter Grum was Deputy Director-General of the Financial Administration. During his years there, a large number of illegal and unconstitutional decisions were made, and their illegality was later confirmed by the courts – the Administrative, Supreme, Constitutional, and European courts,” Simič continued, adding that he had published the important or systemically illegal decisions that fell in the courts between the year 2012 and the 20th of March 2021, in the magazine “Denar” (“Money”), which was published on the 20th of March 2021.
In his blog, Simič also responded to Grum’s statements about illegal decisions, although he hoped that Grum would not raise the issue “because this case has shown in the worst possible way how individuals at the Financial Administration can simply decide who they want to tax, thus bypassing the law. I don’t know whether this is called systemic illegality or something else, but it can certainly be called criminal,” said Simič, who also believes that Peter Grum has caused great damage to the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, which is another reason why he should not be the Acting Director-General of the Financial Administration. “It would be much better if he just kept quiet. But since he brought up this topic, I will answer and explain why I apologised to the financial inspector,” for whom Simič, based on the second-instance decision in 2020, which was favourable to the taxpayer, believed that the financial inspector herself had also participated in the mistreatment of the taxpayer. But when it was subsequently concluded that she had not actually done that, he decided to apologise to her. The second reason for the apology was that the public would not find out in court what had actually happened in this tax procedure, and the whole thing actually went down at a time when Peter Grum was Deputy Director-General of the Financial Administration. That means that he was part of the leadership team, and things like that cannot be ignored by the management.
When the taxpayer asked for interest on late value-added tax refunds, the Financial Administration decided to not grant his request and to redo the procedure of tax control, thus taking back the VAT that had already been refunded. The financial inspector in charge of the tax procedure examined the whole case and drafted a report concluding that everything was in order. Thus, some people from the General Tax Office started pressuring the financial inspector to change his decision, which he then reversed- only to issue a correct and legal decision later in the trial: “The financial inspector said that in his 17-year career he had never experience anyone pressuring him so much to change a lawful decision into an unlawful one. And Peter Grum was the Deputy Director-General of the Financial Administration at the time.”
According to Simič, Peter Grum made another false claim, namely, that the Financial Administration did not issue any systemically illegal decision during his tenure, such as:
⦁ “Even though I warned the Financial Administration that they were illegally and unconstitutionally carrying out personal tax inspections under Article 68a of the Tax Procedure Act during the periods before the 1st of January 2019, which they should not have been doing, they did so from 2014 to 2017. Thus, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia subsequently ruled in its decision number U-I-113/17-40 of the 30th of September 2020 that the Financial Administration’s conduct was unlawful and unconstitutional. This was followed by a reopening of the proceedings, the repayment of the money and the payment of interest on late payments to the taxpayers.
⦁ In the case of sales of business shares, the Financial Administration refused to take into account subsequent capital contributions as the cost of capital, which was incorrect, and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia subsequently ruled in its judgment number X Ips 23/201of the 10th of October 2018 that the Financial Administration’s actions were unlawful.
⦁ In the case of sales of its own business shares, the Financial Administration taxed the purchase price received as disguised profit payment and not as capital income (capital gain), which was incorrect. This put many taxpayers in difficult financial situations. Many were forced to file self-declarations. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, in its judgment number X Ips 61/2021 of the 15th of December 2021, also ruled in this case that the Financial Administration’s actions were unlawful.”
Pete Grum’s claims that the Financial Administration could not have decided differently at that time and that the law was still in force then, are not true, according to Simič. “I warned the Financial Administration about the retroactive inspections in the case of personal tax inspections as early as 2014 already, and Peter Grum replied that if there is anything I do not like, I should contact the Administrative Inspectorate. I considered his reply at the time to be that of a conceited civil servant.”
“And finally, I want to share my proposal with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. They should pay attention to the statements and actions of the Acting Director-General of the Financial Administration, Peter Grum, because it may just happen that it is precisely because of Peter Grum and his reckless actions that they will have problems with the taxpayers. And an even better solution would be to just find a new Acting Director-General of the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia,” Ivan Simič concluded.
Tanja Brkić
