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). 

The "Amendments of Law on VAT - Introducing the System of Charging VAT upon the Collection of Receivables" round table will be held on March 10, 2016 at "Sarajevo" Hotel in Sarajevo.  

The aim of organizing the Round Table is to present the need for changing the Law on Value Added Tax in Bosnia and Herzegovina and incite discussion between the relevant actors for improving the proposal for amendment. 

In accordance with the Law on Value Added Tax, the tax payers are obliged to file a report and pay the VAT from the 1^st to the 10^th of the month on completion of the tax period, regardless of whether they charged for their service-based payments or not. Thus the employers with long periods for service-charging are faced with difficulties in conducting business, because they are primarily obliged to pay the tax obligations of this type, even though they have not charged for their products and services. This, finally, makes numerous business subjects insolvent. Due to the stated reasons, and for the purpose of assisting the economy through improvements of the existing business management conditions, the Institute for Youth Development KULT, together with the members of the Network for creating a better business environment in BiH, advocates for changes of the Law on Value Added Tax, according to which the tax payers would pay the VAT after charging for the conducted service or delivered merchandise, and not after issuing an invoice. 

Representatives of the executive and legislative power, economy, academic and non-governmental sector will participate at the Round Table, along with representatives of other relevant organizations and institutions. 

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). 

The Public Call was published on February 18, 2016, and according to the latest information, 3,300 persons applied so far for their first employment while 1,500 applications were submitted for self-employment. 

The applications are still ongoing and are performed by submitting a request at the web-portal of the Federal Employment Institute at the following link. 

The Institute for Youth Development KULT, as a part of the “BH Business Site” initiative, vehemently supports the initiative of the Government of FBiH for subventions for employing youth without working experience and self-employment, as well as all similar initiatives that aim to increase the number of employed youth and, finally, to improve the position of youth in our country.

As a part of the initiative, a video Taxes was made which aims to present the extent of the burden the emplyoers have to bear due to paying contributions.

https://youtu.be/CE4FY3VqRmM

The Public Call for Requests for First Employment and Self-Employment Subventions was published in accordance with the Provision on Employment Incentives that the FBiH Government enacted in the end of 2015. This Provision is one of the measures of the Action Plan for realization of the reformation agenda of the Federation of BiH. In this manner the FBiH Government is trying to incite employment with economic entities, along with entrepreneurial activity in mostly youth, and contribute to resolving the problem of unemployment, the gravity of which reflects in the number of over half a million unemployed in our country.

The measure projects employment of around 7 to 8 thousand persons by employing youth without or with one year of working experience and inciting self-employment of youth. It is a total amount of 50 million BAM for subventions, i.e. the highest amount allocated so far for employment and self-employment incentives.

What differentiates this measure in comparison to public calls of employment incentives of the Federal Employment Institute from the previous years is that the fund users are employers from areas of production activities, and not from activities in the areas of trade, catering and tourism or the gambling industry, nor public firms and institutions. 

The Institute for Youth Development KULT supports this measure as a good first step towards creating and realizing long-term youth employment measures. In the future, the Institute will advocate the enactment of the Law on Emplyoment Incentives in FBiH on a similar principle, and all based on the Law that the neighboring Croatia enacted in 2012. 

Note: After applying electronically, the printed form of the request with the additional documentation stated in the form of the request is to be delivered to the authorized cantonal employment service personally or via mail. The Call will remain open until the funds are spent.

As a part of the “BH Business Site” initiative, the Institute for Youth Development KULT vehemently supports the initiative of FBiH Government for subventions for youth without working experience and self-employment, and all similar initiatives that aim to increase the number of employed youth and, finally, to improve the position of youth in our country.

The Public Call for Requests for First-Employment Subventions and Self-Employment was published today in accordance with the Provision on Employment Incentives that the FBiH Government enacted in the end of 2015. This Provision is one of the measures of the Action Plan for realization of the reformation agenda of the Federation of BiH. In this manner the FBiH Government is trying to incite employment with economic entities, along with entrepreneurial activity in mostly youth, and contribute to resolving the problem of unemployment, the gravity of which reflects in the number of over half a million unemployed in our country.

The measure projects employment of around 7 to 8 thousand persons by employing youth without or with one year of working experience and inciting self-employment of youth. It is a total amount of 50 million BAM for subventions, i.e. the highest amount allocated so far for employment and self-employment incentives.

It is expected that the measure will have good results, considering that the subvention will be awarded for first year of working experience of an unemployed person, with the obligation of the employer to keep the newly employed for the following year with no subvention, i.e. with the obligation to pay the employee’s salary and contributions. Thus the employee is given an opportunity to acquire working experience and also, through hard work and effort, to create an opportunity to extend his employment.

What differentiates this measure in comparison to public calls of employment incentives of the Federal Employment Institute from the previous years is that the fund users are employers from areas of production activities, and not from activities in the areas of trade, catering and tourism or the gambling industry, nor public firms and institutions. 

The employer may employ unemployed persons aged from 15 to 30 without working experience in the field of occupation for which they were educated or with one year of working experience. The users of funds for self-employment are unemployed persons aged from 18 and over that have registered a society with limited liability or a craft after the Provision was enacted. The subvention is awarded to the employer on behalf of refunding obligations based on contributions for the lowest salary in FBiH, the lowest salary in FBiH and income taxes of the newly employed or self-employed.

The Institute for Youth Development KULT supports this measure as a good first step towards creating and realizing long-term youth employment measures. In the future, the Institute will advocate the enactment of the Law on Emplyoment Incentives in FBiH on a similar principle, and all based on the Law that the neighboring Croatia enacted in 2012. 

The application is submitted by filing a request on the web-portal of the Federal Employment Institute at http://www.fzzz.ba/vijesti/uredba-subvencioniranje-zapoljavanja-mladih-bez-radnog-iskustva-i-samozapoljavanja. After applying electronically, the printed form of the request with the additional documentation stated in the form of the request is to be delivered to the authorized cantonal employment service personally or via mail. The Call will remain open until the funds are spent.