Bosnia and Herzegovina: Special methods of tax debt payment for companies in Republic of Srpska declared unconstitutional

Dajana Topic

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Srpska (RS) held its 191st regular session on December 22 2014. During this session, in accordance with constitutional and legal frameworks, decisions were made on the compliance of laws and other legal acts with the constitution and laws of RS.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that certain regulations of the special methods of debt payment, which stipulate that the tax debt can be settled by payment of the entire amount of the principal debt in cash with the write-off of interest, are not constitutional, as well as converting the tax debt into equity in the assets of the tax debtor.

The Court has explained this decision with the fact that disputed regulations violated the principle of equality under article 10 of the Constitution. Namely, this created an unequal position for taxpayers who already paid their tax liabilities incurred in that period. This was, according to the Constitutional Court, an unequal relationship among taxpayers in respect of the same debt and it provided benefits for those who do not fulfill their obligations.

Generally speaking, payment of corporate income tax in Bosnia is supposed to be performed in monthly installments, while calculated according to the previous year's taxable profit.

In RS and Brcko district, monthly advance payments of tax are made by the tenth day of the current month for the previous month's liabilities. Final tax payments have to be made by the deadline for filing the annual tax return.

A taxpayer in RS may submit a request for tax assessment if the calculated income is above or below that of the previous year.

In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) the tax due must be paid by the end of the current month for the previous month.

Dajana Topic (dajana.topic@eurofast.eu)
Eurofast Global, Banja Luka Office/B&H
Tel: +387 51 961 610
Website: www.eurofast.eu

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