The Center for Civil Initiatives (CCI) recently published a report on “The state of the nation”, which follows the implementation and effects of reforms in BiH. This report offers an overview of information on the implementation of the Reform Agenda and measures in several sectors, including public finances, business climate, labor markets, the rule of law, social politics, etc. One of the areas of analysis is tax debt in BiH.
Although the official statistics in 2017 showed the increase of collected direct and indirect taxes, the total tax debt in BiH (based on direct and indirect taxes) amounts to an incredible amount of 4.5 billion BAM! Furthermore, the debt for direct taxes (payroll tax, contributions to the pension fund, health insurance, unemployment, etc.) amounts to around 3.8 billion BAM. For comparison, the total tax debt is almost 4 times higher than the last multi-annual arrangement with the IMF.
On the basis of indirect taxes, the value of the debt amounts to more than 770 million BAM, which includes unpaid VAT, customs, and excise duties. For comparison, the amount of this part of the debt is close to the total annual government loan from commercial banks in 2017.
When it comes to direct taxes, the total unpaid tax debt in the FBiH amounts to 2 billion and 596 million BAM, and it includes debts due to unpaid salary taxes, contributions to pension funds, health insurance, unemployment, etc. The largest debtors on the basis of unpaid public revenues are taxpayers with a share of the state capital, i.e. public companies and public institutions.
According to still unconfirmed data, the total unpaid tax debt of the RS, based on direct taxes, amounts to a total of 1, 167 million BAM this year. The largest debtors on the basis of unsettled public revenues, again, are public institutions and public companies (taxpayers with a share of state capital). The top ten largest debtors owe a total amount of 171 million BAM, or 15 % of the total tax debt, and public institutions and public enterprises are accounted for 53 % or 90 million BAM.
(Source: klix.ba)
