Since the beginning of 2021, it has been questionable whether grants received to mitigate the negative consequences of COVID-19, should be included in the basis for calculating the tourist and forest contribution fees given that there was no legal basis for the exemption of such income.
Revenues from COVID grants received by the government could arise if a series of measures are taken into account such as shortening companies' working hours, incentives for reimbursement of fixed costs due to inactivity of business and incentives for employees' net wages are given or writing off public benefits. All these revenues should have been recorded in the books on account 7863 – Revenues from government aid to mitigate the negative consequences of the disease COVID-19., Initially, the Ministry of Finance suggested that such revenues should be included in the calculations but that was only up until recently. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports stated that since COVID grants are not considered an income realized by providing a service or performing activities directly related to tourism, they are not the basis for determination and calculation of tourist contribution fee. Shortly after, the same instruction came from the Ministry of Agriculture, that revenues accumulated from the governmental aids and incentives mentioned above, should not be included in the calculation of forest contribution.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that according to the table below the new and lower calculation rates for tourist membership fees, applied in January 2021, are in favour of taxpayers.
| Category | Rates for Financial Year 2021 |
New Rates at 01.01.21 |
% Decrease |
| I. | 0.16150 | 0.14212 | 12% |
| II. | 0.12920 | 0.11367 | 12.02012% |
| III. | 0.09690 | 0.08527 | 12.00206% |
| IV. | 0.03230 | 0.02842 | 12.01238% |
| V. | 0.01938 | 0.01705 | 12.02270% |
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