Application of the Rulebook Postponed Until October: Taxation of Hot Meals and Vacation Allowances Immediately After the Elections

The Rulebook on Income Tax has been annulled even though it only came into force until October 2016, confirmed for the Patria agency Edhem Biber, president of the Economic and Social Council. He said that this information was confirmed by Finance Minister Jelka Milićević, after the request of employers and the ESV for a temporary postponement of the application of the Rulebook was considered.

- Employers expressed concern about the impossibility of implementing such a decision in a short period of time. This way they will have time to prepare acts and organize themselves for the application of the Rulebook from October - said Biber.

Otherwise, employers are concerned about the application of this Rulebook because it is a new blow to both workers and employers. This means that in addition to the high levies that employers in the FBiH already pay, they will also pay additional taxes on vacation allowances and hot meals for workers. Levies on salaries in the FBiH, which amount to around 70 percent, are among the highest in the region and there are no indications that they could be reduced, but rather new ones are being added.

One of the successful businessmen Safudin Čengić, owner of the company Centrotrans, previously told Patria that the Government will increase revenues by ten percent in this way, but will lose ten percent of jobs.

- I think the new levies are hasty, without an adequate approach, without strategic moves in terms of a long-term solution to the problem. It is certain that employers will express great dissatisfaction and be forced to reduce the number of employees after the new government levies.

Čengić warns that the main problem in the FBiH is the huge and unnecessary administrative apparatus. The Government maintains high levies due to an overly large administration, although there is no great benefit from it, or almost none, except that it is a safe voting machine for the parties.

- It is clear that the Government does not want to cut the branch it sits on, because the administration is a voting machine, but one day because of that branch the whole tree will fall - warns Čengić.