Suljević: Persons without parents should be exempt from gift tax on real estate from grandparents

(Patria) - Samir Suljević, a representative of the Social Democratic Party of BiH in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, has submitted a Law on Amendments to the Law on Real Estate Transfer Tax and Gift Tax of the Sarajevo Canton, which exempts grandchildren of a donor whose parent is deceased or declared dead from paying gift tax.

"Under the current Law, only the children of the donor are exempt from paying gift tax, but not the grandchildren, even if their parents are deceased or died. In a situation where, for example, a grandmother or grandfather wants to gift real estate to a grandchild because their child is no longer alive, the grandchild will have to pay tax. In circumstances where we have numerous children of martyrs and fallen soldiers, this is a true slap in the face from the state to its defenders," emphasizes Samir Suljević.

The SDP believes that the current solution is unfair, but also does not correspond to the principles on which such reliefs are based, which are related to close kinship, i.e., descendants.

"Grandchildren, like children, represent the descendants of a grandmother and grandfather. When the descendants of a grandmother and grandfather are interrupted by the death of their child, their next descendant is a grandson or granddaughter, i.e., the child of their child. For this reason, in the event that the child of the grandmother and grandfather is not alive, the tax exemption should apply to their grandchild who is the child of their deceased child. Anything else can be interpreted as paying tax on the fact that someone does not have parents, which is frightening," Suljević states.