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The Tax Administration warned all natural persons that they must file tax returns for the entry of foreign money on their own initiative, in order to avoid criminal misconduct and liability. This announcement will affect the local freelancers more.
Isidora Đurić teaches Spanish online, mainly to teenagers from the Far East. He says this job works in the first place because there are no other job opportunities at the moment.
– I am a Spanish teacher and it is very difficult to find a job. The announcement of the tax collection confused me, I don’t even know how to report it, how to calculate it. I do not earn thousands of euros as perhaps some developers, if they take half of these 500 dollars, as much as I manage to earn per month, as advertised, I cannot live off the rest. I will have to change jobs or countries – he says.
The Tax Administration has established a high rate of non-payment of taxes by individuals based on data on payments from abroad and comparison with the tax returns filed. Thus, on October 13, Poreska published a statement “Self-report of foreign income” in which it announced that it would initiate charges for minor and criminal offenses against individuals, retroactively for the last five years, with default interest.
In most cases, these are freelancers offering software development, translation, foreign language classes, promotion and graphic design services. On digital platforms such as Google, Upwork, Bibo global, Opportunity, AirBnB. But also people who earn income from social networks, online gambling, and those who caused the “apartment of the day.” A special control focus should be on payment cards opened abroad such as Skrill, Payoneer and Neteller, but also on payments according to the Booking.com site.
The initiative of the workers on the Internet, as they say, for such a vague and “ad hoc” arrangement of the Tax Administration with the workers who earn via the Internet, organized an online conference with Mario Reljanović, associate researcher at the Institute of Law Comparado and president of the Center for Decent Work. This tax obligation has existed for 20 years and has not changed substantially.
– The Personal Income Tax Law provides for the taxation of practically all income earned by citizens. The law stipulates many things that are not the most favorable and logical. What is characteristic of the payment of the tax on the rate earned abroad and that occurs as an inflow of foreign currency to Serbia is that the taxpayer must declare, calculate and pay the tax himself. Because of this, very few people paid for it. The obligation to pay taxes expires in five years. I don’t know why Poreska came out with this ad at the moment, I guess because of the lack of money in the budget – said Reljanović.
As stated, individuals who received money in accounts in foreign currency will be taxed between 45 and 50 percent. It is estimated that in Serbia, several hundred thousand, perhaps even a million people, received payments from abroad. Of course, not everyone is exclusively autonomous, there are many paid grants and donations, but if they are not categorized in that way, they will also have to be taxed.
Half of tax revenue
As a partial solution, you can hear a proposal to define exactly who are the self-employed in a certain category of workers, in order to increase the payment of taxes and contributions.
– The tax rate is too high. It is linear, not progressive. Therefore, almost half of the income goes to paying taxes and contributions, which is a characteristic of a predatory system, which is why most people want to avoid it. It is even worse that people have to report that tax themselves, so they are already in violation after 30 days of payment, many of them did not even know that this tax existed. When you find out that it exists, again you do not know how to pay it, there is no possibility that the Tax Administration will calculate how much you owe. The average self-employed person would have to hire an accountant, but also a lawyer. For example, you receive 30 payments of 100 euros each, which is already 30 forms for you, explained Mario Reljanović, associate researcher at the Institute of Comparative Law.
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