Visit of the UNSA Faculty of Law 3rd year students to the FBiH Tax Administration
Within the framework of teaching and student practice in the subject of Finance and Financial Law in the 3rd year of studies in the academic year 2023/24, at the University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Law, the students were welcomed by the director of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, M.Sci. Šerif Isović, and the Head of the Department for Tax Opinions and Education, M.Sc. sci. Fahra Ćatović and federal tax inspector M.Sc. Iur. Vernes Šikalo held a presentation on the tax system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the scope of jurisdiction, the organizational structure (sectors, departments and services in the Central Office with the director and deputy, 10 cantonal offices with departments, and 73 branches), the challenges they face in their work and procedures carried out by the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among other things, students gained knowledge about tax legislation, registration of taxpayers, records and identification number of taxpayers and the method of allocation, databases on taxpayers, and the confidentiality of such data, and an understanding of the procedures for applying tax law, reporting tax obligations and inspection supervision - the relationship between the norms of tax law and the norms of administrative law; find out how many employees the FBiH Tax Administration has, how many resident and non-resident taxpayers there are - individuals and legal entities, and how many taxpayers they cooperate with as passive subjects in the implementation of tax legislation and the calculation and collection of tax revenues; speaking of tax revenue collection procedures, trends in the volume of revenue growth are presented through a comparison of the amount of annually collected public revenue in previous years, from individual tax (sub)forms of direct taxes, and data for the nine-month period of 2023 that indicate an increase in public revenue collection in regular procedure, and an even higher growth of revenues collected in the forced collection procedure. The procedure of forced collection of tax revenues, procedures and means of ensuring the collection of tax obligations are additionally explained through the activities and actions undertaken with the aim of collecting revenues from tax debtors. The students were explained the types of control of taxpayers performed by tax inspectors and the results of the inspection were highlighted through the amounts of subsequently determined tax liabilities according to the adopted decisions.
Accompanied by Mrs. Ćatović, the students toured the reception office, the office and the archive, and got acquainted with the movement of the mail, from the receipt of correspondence and documentation and the dispatch of mail, to the formation of cases and their archiving. This was followed by a tour of the server room with Igor Ivić p.o. Head of the Department for System Maintenance and Support for IT System Users, with clarifications on the information system of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, databases, fiscal systems and data storage.
With the aim of strengthening tax awareness and discipline, the FBiH Tax Administration encourages the general public, citizens and taxpayers to report corruption, misdemeanors and tax evasion via e-mail to sivaekonomija@fpu.gov.ba, SMS messages and free phone lines, including students. The Faculty of Law will familiarize you with the possibilities of submitting applications.
In its work, the FBiH Tax Administration exchanges information and achieves cooperation with other authorities and institutions for the consistent enforcement of tax laws and collection of tax revenues.
