Humanitarian Organizations Demand VAT Exemption
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The NINA news agency reported last week that the four biggest B&H humanitarian organizations: Merhamet, Caritas, La Benevolencia and Dobrotvor, demanded again that humanitarian organizations are exhempt from the obligation to pay Value Added Tax (VAT).
The Law on VAT treats the humanitarian organizations in the same way prescribed for commercial and for-profit organizations, so that VAT is charged for all procurement operations, including food and medicines, which means, naturally, a reduced scope of services they can offer to the needy population. Sabina Sabitovic-Karic from the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, emphasized that the institutions have accellerated the work on the new draft of the Law on Humanitarian Organizations, which will provide for legal and tax exhemptions, designed to promote their work. Humanitarian organizations, in spite of being one of the key mechanisms for provision of social services, together, of course, with the state institutions, are not the only non-profit organizations working for public good and whose work was endangered by VAT. For instance, organizations working on environmental issues, or human rights, also produce effects usefull for the whole society, although their results are less visible, over the short-term, than direct services of the humanitarian organizations. The question remains, does the state intend to do something to ease and stimulate their work? |
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