In this paper the experiences of taxpayers with the tax audits services as an important tool of tax authorities’ struggle against tax evasion are discussed. In the theoretical part of the paper the factors of tax compliance and the tax authorities’ measures in combating tax evasion are examined, the levels of tax rates and the compliance burden of European Union member states’ tax systems are compared. In the empirical part of the paper the experiences of Slovenian companies with tax audit services are analyzed. Better understanding of the drivers of taxpayer compliance behavior allows tax administration to identify and implement policy measures more effectively.

Financial inclusion, defined as the adequate access and usage of formal financial services to improve people’s lives, is a crucial area for the economic development of a country through its various angles. This paper analyzes the impact of selected FinTech companies on financial inclusion in their respective countries to obtain lessons of their business models and country environments that can help Peruvian financial inclusion. The selected FinTechs are M-PESA in Kenya, Nubank in Brazil, GCASH in the Philippines, and Easypaisa in Pakistan, which revolutionized the financial sector in their respective countries. However, a comparative study of their impact on financial inclusion in their respective country has not been conducted yet; therefore, the lessons obtained are helpful for the Peruvian situation due to their practical implications and because they raise possible areas for further and deeper research. The approach of this study considered a qualitative and quantitative method (to find a Pearson correlation between the percentage of the population of Country (A) that are users of FinTech (a) and the six selected demand-side indicators per country retrieved from the Global Findex Database) analysis to understand the results obtained. The results obtained indicate that M-PESA and GCASH, companies specialized in providing basic mobile money transactions such as remittances and withdrawals, did not impact the provision of other financial services such as savings or credit cards. In Easypaisa’s case, this company positively impacts the studied indicators, probably due to its original partnership with a microfinance institution. Regarding Nubank, despite its remarkable growth in the last years, the company does not affect financial inclusion in Brazil yet. Nonetheless, after its recent expansion to provide more financial services, future research could assess the impact of this company on Brazilian financial inclusion.

The circular economy (CE) encourages sustainability by shifting towards business models that prolong resource use. The quantity of waste generated by electric and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) is rapidly rising and is one of the fastest-growing waste streams. Our paper explores the awareness, benefits, barriers, incentives, and implementation of CE in the electric and electronic equipment (EEE) industry in Slovenia and Croatia. In the theoretical section, we review the existing literature on CE, the EEE industry in both countries, and their policy frameworks for developing CE. Based on primary research through a survey and inferential statistical analysis in the empirical section, we investigate the implementation of CE in the EEE industry in both countries. This paper identifies which CE practices companies in the EEE industry implement, how company size affects CE implementation, how companies evaluate institutional support to CE, and their plans regarding CE. The results highlight some differences between the two countries. Drawing on the empirical findings, we determine key challenges and opportunities for increasing CE adoption in this sector and formulate some European suggestions for policymakers, industry practitioners, and researchers.

In this paper we test the significance of norms and trust in authorities for voluntary tax compliance in Slovenia. The empirical analysis has shown that national and social norms are significant factor of tax compliance, whilst trust in authorities (the Parliament and the European Union) was not proved as significantly related variables of tax compliance in Slovenia. We discuss possible policy responses to our findings. Since norms and trust in authorities are non-economic factors of tax-compliance the indirect control approach, which focuses on the development of a high trust and high commitment culture of taxpayers has been examined more thoroughly. Due to the generally valid recognition that both direct and indirect control measures need to be used together to tackle the shadow economy, we briefly introduce the responsive regulation approach and the slippery slope framework.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of entrepreneurship policy support for the internationalisation of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Slovenia. For this purpose, the mean importance of the primary motives for entering foreign markets, as well as the barriers to entering and doing business in foreign markets, together with knowledge and expectations about governmental and non-governmental support services, were measured in the first part of this research. In the second part, the web portal of the central Slovenian institution for entrepreneurship acceleration – Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment (PAEFI) – was analysed. The last part of our research comprised website analyses of institutional support for the internationalisation of SMEs, in three other selected member states of the European Union. The study highlights the low awareness and negative experiences of Slovenian SMEs with institutional support for the internationalisation of SMEs.