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The most famous online auction platform in the world, eBay, yesterday sent a notice to users in Serbia that according to Serbian tax regulations, they will start calculating VAT at 20 percent from January. According to your information, the tax will be charged to all Ebay users residing in Serbia. The news about the new rules and higher costs of online trading was greeted with disgust by many local users, as eBay charges high fees. By the way, today many citizens of Serbia trade through this platform. This global Internet flea market is not a place where only new products are sold, but are often used at very attractive prices for buyers from the West. A former dealer of vintage items who sells through eBay tells “Politika” that he was surprised by this news, but is still not sure what type of tax it is and how much it will cost.
– Payments for the items sold are generally made through PayPal, and to withdraw that money, I have to transfer it to my Internet card. I am sure the state and the Tax Administration have an idea of my foreign exchange inflows, but that is not pure profit. There are a lot of costs that go along with that and in the end there is only enough left to cover a lower salary, he says. It lists the cost of shipping, which is often higher than the price of the item you sell, plus the commissions charged by eBay.
– Last month I paid a commission of $ 1,200. It may seem unbelievable to some, but the products we sell are mostly old and used, from flea markets, old things that no one wants and that fortunately still have customers. Whether it is military (old military articles), old magazines or various articles that someone threw away – says our interlocutor and adds that he does not escape paying obligations, but would like to be fair. Traders say that after this announcement, many will surely abandon this type of trade or simply try to register orders in other countries to avoid paying obligations. They claim that those who cannot live on a salary of 30,000 dinars trade through this and other similar sites, so they are trying to make up for the money from the family budget by selling old stuff.
One of them, who lives in Croatia, and sells on I-bey through several accounts, one of which is from Serbia, as he says, did not take this news seriously, as he does not sell much through one account serbia.
– The main sale goes through an account in Italy, where I have been working for more than ten years. I have never paid taxes, because in Italy serious merchants with registered online stores have such obligations. Ordinary merchants, like me, have never had such an obligation and there were no controls. I even doubt that this is a way for eBay as a company to try to increase its income – says our interlocutor, adding that he recently received a notification in an account registered in Italy that a VAT number is required from February, that if they want to sell, must be registered.
– I think most sellers, in case the tax collection starts, they will move the store to Facebook, where there are numerous target groups such as collectors who sell and trade old things with each other. Therefore, other social networks can be used for these purposes in the future, believes our interlocutor.
Goran Radosavljevic, a professor at the FEFA faculty, explains that in this case, the I-Bay platform collected taxes to protect itself from the law in his country. She is not the only one. That, he says, has been done by many others, from video game providers onward.
According to our law, the movement of goods between natural persons is not taxed, but the platform does not know if you are a natural or legal person.
– eBay does not have a legal entity registered in Serbia and to protect everyone, it introduced a value added tax. They probably did it so they don’t have to “look at the beans” who is on the other side, whether they are selling or identifying. Otherwise, you would be subject to income tax, explains Radosavljevic.
Our interlocutor says that this is a story similar to that of PayPal. E-bay is registered in the territory of the European Union, where the member states do not pay VAT to each other. If eBay had a company in Serbia, it would be possible to control the turnover through that company, what it sells and how it sells, if it sells to a natural or legal person. Since they do not have a company registered here, there are certain restrictions. In the case of PayPal, there are restrictions that you can pay for something, but not in our country, because it is not registered in Serbia.
– The biggest problem is our currency exchange law, which is quite rigid and we have been talking about for almost two decades. That law essentially stipulates that if you want to do business in Serbia, you must have a registered company. International platforms are registered in some other destinations from which they work. To protect themselves from the law in their countries, they charge taxes or, in the case of PayPal, prohibit trading on the territory of Serbia. Our Tax Administration cannot do anything to them, but it can urge their Tax Administration and then it can prosecute them for violating the law of a certain country – emphasizes the professor of the FEFA faculty.
In addition to this, merchants through platforms such as eBay are also subject to the payment of taxes and contributions, as well as all digital workers on the Internet, who have income from abroad. When “Politika” recently asked the Tax Administration if online merchants are treated the same as freelancers, they told us that people who earned income abroad, regardless of whether they obtained from the sale of goods or from the provision of services , are subject to analysis in PU. The tax treatment of the sale of goods depends on whether it is a “case-by-case” sale of one’s property or a permanent activity of a natural person.
Radosavljevic says the freelance story takes time and is being solved in a very simple way. This is achieved when someone founds an entrepreneurial business, is a taxpayer in Serbia, and therefore has no other tax liability, ie. they pay a flat tax, which is lower than what they would pay as individuals. But, as our interlocutor emphasizes, the moment they open a company, their finances are transparent.
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