Organized by the American Chamber of Commerce andForeign Investors Council BiH an open forum covering the topic “Thesystem of collection and taxation of services for protection of intellectualproperty, digital contents, and telecommunication services in Bosnia andHerzegovina €ť was held in Banja Luka, on Wednesday, April 1st 2015,with the aim of starting a dialogue on the problems faced by businesses in theICT (Information Communication Technology) field and the protection ofintellectual property rights.
The event, which was divided into three thematicsections, provided an overview of a collection and taxation of services forprotection of intellectual property, tax treatment of digital contents andtelecommunications services. In addition to the representatives of thecompanies – members of AmCham BiH and the BiH FIC, the problems were alsodiscussed by representatives of the ITA BiH, inspection bodies, and taxauthorities.
“ITA works on amending the Law onAdded Value Tax and harmonizing it with the EU recommendations. The first drafthas been completed and we use this opportunity to invite business associationsrepresenting the voice of investors to become involved in the further work onamending this legislation. We want to form partnership with you €ť – said Dejan Radić, head of the group for monitoringmajor taxpayers in ITA BiH.
The need for holding an open forum on this specifictheme arose from the fact that current and future foreign investors find theICT sector in BiH to be the most interesting and consider its potential cancontribute to increased economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whiledirectly promoting the development of other economic sectors.
“I am pleased that thisconference presents an opportunity to bring out open questions, but also tocreate a concrete dialogue in order to make important changes from which we allwould benefit. We must jointly work on raising awareness about the use anddistribution of licensed software, taxation of digital contents, and preventionof illegal use of IT products €ť,said Đorđe Mišić, executive director of marketing and sales in M:tel.