prijava
SARAJEVO, April 16 (FENA) - Association of Employers of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent an open letter to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zoran Tegeltija and the Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda, asking them to urgently launch initiatives for signing bilateral agreements, which would enable BiH companies to refund VAT from abroad.
“We are addressing you on behalf of more than 20,000 members of the Association of Employers of FBiH, VAT payers, who have not been able to exercise their right to a VAT refund from abroad for more than 10 years. For more than 10 years, the Association has insisted on amending Articles 94 and 95 of the Rulebook on the Application of the Law on VAT, in order to create conditions for establishing the principle of reciprocity of VAT refunds, i.e. concluding bilateral agreements with other countries on the basis of which BiH businessmen would exercise the right to a VAT refund from abroad,” it is stated in the letter.
They pointed out that "due to the refusal of the Management Board of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH (ITA BiH) to amend the Rulebook, the Association filed a criminal complaint on November 20, 2019 against the members of the ITA BiH Board for failing to make amendments to the Rulebook."
“Based on our report, and on the order of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, SIPA is conducting investigative actions. After the criminal report was filed, the ITA BiH Board finally last year passed the Rulebook on Amendments to the Rulebook on Application of the Law on Value Added Tax, which amended Articles 94 and 95 in a way that creates legal preconditions for establishing the principle of reciprocity of VAT refunds. However, regardless of the fact that amendments to the Rulebook have been adopted, the competent institutions of BiH have not yet initiated the procedure for concluding bilateral international agreements. Countries with which a contract should be concluded, and which have the condition of reciprocity and do not return VAT to BiH companies for years are: Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain and Switzerland,” it was pointed out.
In the letter, they reminded that the competent institutions of Croatia in 2011 sent a letter of intent to the institutions in BiH to sign the agreement, on the basis of which it would be possible to refund VAT to companies in BiH. However, the signing of the agreement was not possible until the amendments to the Rulebook were adopted.
(FENA) A. B.
