up to 70 percent of the self-employed are willing to pay taxes

They consider high tax rates, inadequate legal framework and insufficiently clear instructions for calculating tax liabilities to be the key problems they face.

According to a survey carried out by NALED to a sample of 480 respondents in November, together with the Secretariat of Public Policies of the Republic, the self-employed say that they earn an average of 1,085 euros per month, of which they would reserve a maximum of 110 euros or even 12 percent for taxes and contributions. .

They would not pay even if they had legal status and credit potential with comprehensive insurance, according to the text published in the new NALED newsletter.

It is also interesting that a fifth would give less than 3,000 dinars for tax liability, most of which is less than 1,000 dinars.

“Half of the self-employed would pay taxes and contributions only during the period they work, which is what the tax system allows them to do. There is also a part, about 31 percent of taxpayers, who said they would not want to pay taxes. , citing high taxes, inconsistent income and mistrust of institutions, ”says Igor Lonarevi, vice president of the NALED Alliance for Fair Competition and partner at KPMG.

He adds that the freelancers also want to get a network in return.

“It tells us a lot about the level of tax culture in our country and the ignorance of taxes, which are unassigned income from the state and for their payment in no part of the world is a concrete counter-service but money is invested in common needs such as health , education, infrastructure and others. “, istie Lonarevi.

In a recent panel on strengthening the tax culture, organized by NALED and supported by KPMG and the German Development Cooperation, participants agreed that a negative attitude towards paying taxes will always be justified by the suspicion that the state it doesn’t spend taxpayers’ money well and transparently enough. .

“On the one hand, trust in the system must be strengthened and work must be done on education, especially of young people, to be informed of their legal obligations. Likewise, the Tax Administration must promptly point out the people that the State has knowledge of of all their income and taxes cannot be easily evaded, “Lonarevi said.

The data also indicate that for many freelancers this is not a complementary job but practically permanent. For four out of five respondents, these are the only sources of income, 74 percent of them do that work throughout the year and a quarter about 40 hours a week, which is a full work week.

However, three-quarters would not want to replace self-employment with a full-time employment contract and commitment.

According to the results of the research, the average self-employed person is a man with a college education who is between 20 and 40 years old. They are mostly dedicated to programming and IT service delivery (21%), with online aces (18%), as well as graphic design, web design or 3D modeling and design.

The survey on self-employed is the basis for an analysis of flexible forms of labor participation in Serbia, which will analyze the current situation, obstacles in regulation and practice and define possible directions for reform and recommendations to introduce these forms of work in the legal channels. The analysis is prepared by NALED in cooperation with the Secretariat of Public Policies of the Republic.