Reform of the Tax system in BiH

The Swedish Tax Agency (STA) was assigned to conduct the assessment of the tax system in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in order to explore possibility for a future collaboration with the BiH tax authorities . During the fact finding mission in BiH the STA team met with the respective finance departments, IDDEEA and with the Tax Administrations at the entity levels. Moreover the team also met with the IC representatives active in this sector in BiH. The STA team has submitted the conclusions/reflections from the mission, emphasising a great interest from the BiH tax authorities to cooperate with the STA in order to improve the tax system in the country. As a possible way forward, the team recommended several steps which might improve the tax system in BiH. Possible next steps are divided in three phases :1) Fact finding mission (completed); 2) Inception period which includes study visit to STA, several missions to BiH aiming at preparing and finalising detailed Project Proposal/Document and 3) Project implementation.Following the recommendations from the STA team, Sweden-Sida has decided to approve the Inception phase in the amount of SEK 1 800 000 ( 1,8 MSEK) for the period 2015-2016. Furthermore, it has also been decided that approval of the Project implementation will be a subject of a final decision on contribution which will be delivered upon detailed assessment of the Project Proposal.