Understanding Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT Jurisdictions

Updated 8 days ago

How Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT Jurisdictions Work

Bosnia and Herzegovina has one VAT jurisdiction. You register once, file once, and charge one rate for the whole country. That is worth knowing up front, because the country's political map suggests otherwise and customers often expect to find regional VAT settings that do not exist.

VAT is imposed at state level only, by the Indirect Taxation Authority
There are no regional, entity, city, or district VAT rates
Kintsugi shows a single Bosnia and Herzegovina jurisdiction with no sub-jurisdictions to select
For a transaction to be taxable there, the address in your data has to identify Bosnia and Herzegovina
The VAT identification number, the PDV number, is 12 numeric digits

One Country, One VAT Jurisdiction

Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, plus the Brčko District. Those entities administer many things independently, including direct taxes and fiscalization.

VAT is not one of them. Since the unified system was introduced in 2005, VAT has been administered centrally by the Indirect Taxation Authority for the whole country. One registration, one 17% rate, one monthly return.

	State level	Entity level
Who administers it	Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA)	Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, and Brčko District tax administrations
What sits here	VAT, customs, and excise	Direct taxes, and fiscalization or receipt and invoice recording rules
Number of VAT rates	One rate of 17%	None, entities do not set VAT rates
How Kintsugi handles it	Kintsugi calculates, registers, and files at this level	Out of scope. Kintsugi does not connect to entity fiscalization systems

What This Means For Your Address Data

Kintsugi decides that a transaction is subject to Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT from the country in the address. The entity name and the city do not change the rate, but a missing or incorrect country will keep the transaction out of your Bosnia and Herzegovina figures entirely.

A complete local address looks like this:

Amir Hadžić
Zmaja od Bosne 45, Apt 12
71000 Sarajevo
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina

The last line is the one that drives taxability. The entity line is normal in local addressing and is fine to keep, but Kintsugi does not need it to calculate the tax.

For consumer sales of digital services, Bosnia and Herzegovina sets no formal evidence rule for proving where your customer is. In practice, a billing address, an IP address, a payment-method country, or a SIM country each serve as an indicator.

The PDV Number

Your Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT identification number is called the PDV number, or PDV broj. The ITA issues it.

Field	Value
Name	PDV number (PDV broj)
Format	12 numeric digits
Letters, spaces, or separators	None
Example shape	NNNNNNNNNNNN
Numbers per entity	One. A business holds a single Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT registration

You will use this number on your invoices, and you will ask business customers for theirs so their status can be confirmed.

What This Does Not Cover

Fiscalization and electronic invoicing. These are set separately by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, and the Brčko District, and they are not part of state-level VAT. Kintsugi does not issue fiscal receipts or electronic invoices for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Direct taxes. Corporate income tax and payroll taxes are administered by the entities, not the ITA, and are outside Kintsugi's scope.
Which rate applies to a given sale. See Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT Rates and Taxability Reference.
When registration becomes mandatory. See Understanding Bosnia and Herzegovina VAT Registration Triggers and Thresholds.

This article is general information about how Kintsugi works, not tax advice for your specific situation.

FAQs

Q: Do I need separate registrations for Republika Srpska and the Federation?

A: No. One state-level VAT registration covers the entire country, including the Brčko District.

Q: Are there different VAT rates in different parts of the country?

A: No. The 17% rate applies everywhere, and there are no special-rate regions.

Q: My customer's address has no entity line. Will the tax still calculate?

A: Yes, as long as the address identifies Bosnia and Herzegovina as the country.

Q: Why does Kintsugi show only one jurisdiction for Bosnia and Herzegovina?

A: Because there is only one. The single jurisdiction reflects how the country actually administers VAT.

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