Today the Federal Ministry of Finance and Treasury addressed in a press release the allegations that appeared in the media during the last couple of days. The allegations are related to the taxation of food allowances and regress.
The Line Ministry emphasized that the Rules on the Implementation of the Law on Income Taxes are applied by the Federal Minister of Finance and Treasury, according to the clause 48. The Law on Income Tax governs taxation, respectively non-taxation of the reimbursements that the employer pays to the employee. “The General Collective Agreement between the employer and the employee governs the employee’s right to food allowances and regress.”
As it is further stated, according to the Rules for changing the Rules on the Implementation of the Law on Income Taxes published in the “Official Newspaper of the Federation BiH,” number 52/16, the convergence of the amount of reimbursements are governed by the General Collective Agreement, this accounts for the amount of the reimbursements of food allowances, regress and transport.
In accordance with the General Collective Agreement that came into force on 23 June 2016, the Federal Ministry of Finance and Treasury performed convergence of the Rules on the Implementation of the Law on Income Taxes, according to which the sum amounting up to 1 per cent of the food allowance reimbursement and 50 per cent of the reimbursement of the regress for the vacation, represent amounts that are non-taxable.
The Federal Ministry of the Finance and Treasury explained that the convergence of the Rules with the General Collective Agreement is necessary for the legal conciseness of the rules application.
“Despite the aforementioned, we want to clearly emphasize that the allegations that the changes of the Rules are contrary to the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court are unfounded, because the decisions regarding the Law on Civil Service FBiH has not been published yet in the Official Newspaper of the Federation BiH, even though there is certain information in the media. After publishing the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court we’re going to timely perform adjustments of the Rules, if necessary,” states the report.
The Federal Ministry of the Finance and Treasury emphasized that according to the Reform Agenda, they are planning to reduce the burden on labour by introducing taxation of all reimbursements, respectively broadening the tax base with the reduction of salary endowments, which will ultimately lead to the creation of a better working environment.
(Source: klix.ba)
