Let’s Help BiH Economy! – Institute for Youth Development KULT Is Organizing Round Table on Amendments of Law on VAT

In order to aid the development of economy and creating a better business environment the Institute for Youth Development KULT is organizing the “Amendments of Law on VAT – introducing the system of charging VAT according to collected receivables” that will be held on Thursday, March 10, 2016 at “Sarajevo” Hotel in Sarajevo at 11:45 am.

The Round Table panelists will be:

–     Svetlana Ceni?, Economic Analyst

–     Mark Cambell, USAID Chief of Party of the Fiscal Reform Project 

–     Mladen Pandurevi?, FBiH Employers Association Director

–     Ajka Baru?i?, Project Expert from the Institute for Youth Development KULT

The Round Table will be attended by representatives of the Indirect Taxation Administration as well as members of the Parliament of BIH.

The purpose of organizing the Round Table is to represent the requirement to change the Law on Value Added Tax in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and incite discussion among the relevant actors for improving the proposal of the Amendment. 

Namely, in accordance with the Law on Value Added Tax, taxpayers are obliged to submit a return and pay the VAT from the 1^st to the 10^th of each month on completion of the tax period, regardless of whether or not they have charged for their goods-and-services-based demands. Thus the employers who have a long time period of charging for services are faced with difficulties in business management, because they are primarily obliged to pay for tax obligations of this type, even though they have not charged for their products and services. Finally, this makes many of the business subjects insolvent and drives them to strategies of deception, corruption or termination of business. 

For the listed reasons, and for the purpose of aiding the economy by improving the existing business management systems, in the following period the Institute for Youth Development KULT, together with the members of the Network for creating a better business environment in BiH, will be publicly advocating to introduce changes in the Law on Value Added Tax, according to which the taxpayers would pay the VAT after charging for the provided services and delivered goods, and not after issuing an invoice.

The aim is to use the changes in the Law to additionally influence both the economic development and an improvement of the investment climate. The changes would contribute to the improvement of solvency of small and medium entrepreneurs is also influenced, since they do not have to employ additional financial assets to fulfil the VAT obligation for the deliveries that have not been charged. 

Strengthening of the economy is necessary for the economic prosperity of BiH and precisely the development of small and medium firms is an opportunity for youth out of which, according to the latest data, 67% are unemployed. Small and medium firms are not only the generators of workplaces, but are most commonly started by young entrepreneurs, who have to be helped and supported in their entrepreneurship. 

Representatives of executive and legislative government, economic, academic and NGO sector representatives and other relevant organizations and institutions will participate at the Round Table.

The Round Table will be organized as a part of the “BH Business Site” initiative, managed by the Institute for Youth Development KULT and which is the part of Civil Society Sustainability Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina (CSSP), realized by the Centers of Civil initiatives (CCI) and the Center for Promoting the Civil Society (CPCD) and supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).