Freelancers – the largest mafia association in Serbia – Letters from readers

Most of our compatriots have had the opportunity to read a large number of various news and articles on the subject of Tax Administration and the entry of funds to individuals from abroad in recent days.

Photo: Pixabay / Expresswriters

It would not be anything unusual (in another country), but in Serbia, the announcement of the Tax Administration touched a layer of our people, who have been causing controversy for years.

Let’s go back in time for a moment. About ten years earlier, the world began to accept the idea of ​​working from home; All large companies, mostly in the information technology sector, embraced this new trend and a large number of studies soon confirmed the benefits of this type of work. Serbia, where some of these innovations are late, boarded the train in the last car about two years later.

Then there was a bit of talk about it, almost shyly, but people accepted the idea. Domestic companies were not so interested, but even then foreign companies’ interest in hiring professionals for “little money” grew.

We had to offer knowledge and experience, and in return, those companies offered excellent conditions: equipment, training, and most importantly, excellent salaries.

Today, in our country, there are dozens of people who work remotely, exclusively with foreign companies, some say even hundreds of thousands (there are no official statistics, so we have to depend on speculation from both the authorities and the experts) .

You would think that this is good news and that these people enjoy a certain respect in their community. If you really think like that, you are wrong.

The negative campaign that has been carried out for years against our experts who work for foreign companies, logically, has generated a negative feeling among a large number of our compatriots.

The mainstream media, regardless of political orientation, have been spreading misinformation for some time – they claim that salaries are between three and five thousand euros, that employers pay for vacations, cars and equipment, and most importantly – that people who they work that way they don’t pay taxes in our country. countries.

Imagine what it looks like in the eyes of someone who barely earns 200-300 euros. You can’t even blame people for having a rather negative attitude towards the self-employed and, more recently, towards other occupations that operate according to a similar system. I mean, first of all, the so-called youtubers and influencers.

I admit it, I myself am self-employed, in September of this year it was eight years since my first honorarium. No, it was not a thousand euros, but five (5) dollars for a foreign language article about Serbia.

Today I have many contracts behind me, a large number of satisfied clients, but also experience, both in self-employment and in the legal waters of our country.

Before writing anything else, no, I don’t have a salary of five thousand euros, nor do I think I ever will. You see, the reality for all of us who work remotely is that the competition is excellent – over 50 people from around the world, with varying backgrounds and diplomas, apply for my current position every month.

When you manage to cross that barrier and land a job, entirely new challenges begin. We don’t have a classic work schedule, most of us work by performance or by the hour. A lot of freelancers never get a more serious commitment, but they work on a larger number of smaller projects for concrete income.

I bought my equipment (consisting of a seven-year-old computer and a wireless mouse) on my own, without the help of a company or a bank, because it is very difficult for banks to make loans to freelancers, regardless of their earnings and experience.

As you can see, the situation is very different from what the media claims. I do not want to generalize, but this is my experience, and colleagues from various parts of our country have confirmed to me that the situation is similar with them.

I will return to the subject of the first paragraph – in the last few days, bombastic headlines have appeared in almost all media – print and digital.

“Serbia stands in the way of influencers”, “YouTubers and Tiktokeri are being attacked by Poreska” or “If you work on the Internet, you will pay taxes up to 80%”. I made up these titles, but you get the point.

The state wants to tax all inputs from abroad, which is quite correct, but no one from the Government or the competent ministries has done anything so that all these people enter regular flows; the goal is just to scare the citizens and grab as much money as possible immediately.

For years, that money flowed (through legal flows) to the state, people used it to pay rent, buy food, and even help family and friends. Now, when the premise is put before our experts who work like this, that the tax is much higher (even for people who are completely legal) and that the state will demand that everything be paid at once, with fines and penalties, all Those of us in We are faced with a difficult decision: to stay in Serbia and try to survive on a very low salary or to just drop everything and move to a country that welcomes the self-employed?

Examples of such countries can be found even in our environment: Macedonia has introduced a zero percent tax on self-employed workers for the next two years, while Montenegro (if I’m not mistaken) has a tax rate of nine percent on self-employed workers. income.

The impression is created that we are undesirable in our own country, while threats of criminal charges against thousands of self-employed workers in Serbia show that we are in fact considered an organized criminal association.

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