The pursuit of global competitiveness requires a complex system of measures that enable the promotion of business. Yet this goal is strongly hindered by interdisciplinary (legal, economic, managerial, IT) red tape programs in both national and supranational frameworks. The aim of the paper is to enhance the understanding of red tape by identifying key sector-specific problems in administrative areas that are crucial for SMEs and offer suggestions for improvement. The paper explores measures related to red tape in the Slovenian and European contexts based on the understanding that transparent regulation with efficient procedures is a precondition for a business-friendly environment that attracts investments. The research is based on a combination of empirical methods applied to a base of over 900 surveys collected from Slovenian SMEs in 2016 and 2017. The results show that entrepreneurs see the greatest administrative burdens in the area of accounting and financial reports, especially the number of the documents needed, the time needed to perform a procedure, and the need for outsourcing.

The effectiveness of procedure is important for parties (e.g. citizens or business entities) to be able to exercise their rights in due time and is a key foundation of the rule of law. A State with an effective legal system provides a business-friendly environment, which is appealing for investments. The State decides on permits, licenses, taxes, etc. by applying administrative procedure. The aim of the paper is to identify and analyse such matters under public (administrative) law at the national level, which – due to their influence on private rights or obligations – fall under the civil or criminal limb of Article 6 of the ECHR and its requirements, as well as the requirements of Article 13. By means of a case study and descriptive-analytical and normative methods, the paper identifies comparatively selected cases and analyses the ECtHR test regarding reasonable time, focusing on overall procedure duration and the awarded compensations. The findings show that the ECtHR does not define reasonable timein abstracto. Therefore, the established violations among the states range from two-year procedures to nine years and more, depending on the circumstances of each individual case. Similarly, there are also variations in terms of compensation awarded.

"The idea of cooperative tax compliance promotes a partnership relationship between the tax authority and taxpayers, aiming to improve tax compliance. Fair, efficient, and sustainable taxation is central in delivering a greener and more digital world, espe cially in the recovery process from the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. Based on the methodology of struc tured interviews, the paper explores the perception of taxpayers and the tax authority participating in the Slovenian cooperative compliance programme. The results revealed the attitude towards internal tax control mechanisms, the relationship between stakeholders, the advantages and disadvantages of the programme, and the perception of tax inspec tions on both sides of this relationship. Based on those, the challenges of internal control mechanism implementation and constant improvement as well as the tax authority experts’ competences were ex posed as the most important inhibitory factors of the programme. Additionally, the paper highlights the recommendations for collaboration improve ment and an increased number of taxpayers enter ing the status in the future. "

The aim of the paper is to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of co-operative (voluntary) tax compliance status for medium-sized and large taxpayers in the Republic of Slovenia. The instrument was introduced in 2015, aiming to promote partnersh...