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> Subsequently, on October 13, 2020, the Tax Administration demanded that all private individuals who had received money from abroad pay their taxes and social

• mantas 6y ago
  Looks like it's a 2001 law that is now being enforced?
• stale 6y ago
  It's not a new tax it's existing legislation that was not enforced. By law they (the government) have a right to review your income in foreign currency for the past 5 years. So now freelancers are being taxed for those 5 years and are expected to pay, potentially thousands of dollars, in a short time period. Most of them knew this way of working was in the gray area at best and that the law is just not being enforced. There was always an option of opening a small business, paying relatively small amount of taxes and doing it legally. This way you get medical insurance, and at least some pension. Of course this is not a good option for people that freelance as a side gig since taxes could range between 100 and 400 euros depending on what type of freelance jobs you did and where you live.
  • afrcnc 6y ago
    This looks like the Serbian government's mistake and not something that workers did. Mindboggling the government is now acting like a thug even if it's the one to blame.
    • necovek 6y ago
      To say that it was not enforced is just a one way to look at it. The obligation, per law, lay with the tax payer (income earner), and government could do random audits (which they are now doing, except they are not very random). The 5 year of backtaxes comes from the statute of limitations on tax obligations being up to 5 years, but in theory, if someone owning taxes does not explicitly call out the law about the expiration of debt, they are liable for any tax debt even longer than that.
• spery 6y ago
  What happened is that basically noone was paying any tax because the Tax Service did not have a way to classify internet workers. You can't pay taxes if you don't know how much you need to pay. Bigger issue here is that they are forcing the people to play for the preceding 5 years, and taxes include both health insurance (which those people could not receive) and retirement fund (which those people are not eligible for those 5 years). But Serbian government as a whole is deeply corrupt and this surprises noone.
  • elmo2you 6y ago
    Additionally, from what I've figured from the media reports on this, it's not just about this retroactive tax demand. It's also about the level of tax they will have to pay going forward, which appears to be stupendously height (at least for freelancers). It appears on par with, or even higher than, what people with regular employment often pay, in countries with elaborate and functioning social security/welfare systems. Serbia certainly does not appear to have those. It does appear as if this government really does not want freelancing to be a viable option. Considering the recent efforts to attract foreign investments into local Serbian (tech) companies, where almost insane return-on-investments figures are being promised (of course flowing back to the foreign investors), with all kind of questionable perks (pretty much destroying any potential competition from local businesses), it's not impossible that there is an orchestrated scheme going on here. It sadly would not be a new phenomenon if/when in Serbia a small group of shot-callers are manipulating anything and everything to just enrich themselves, by collaborating with questionable (and ultimately abusive/destructive) foreign enterprises, at the expense of Serbia's citizens and in fact the country as a whole. But, we'll see what happens.
    • levosmetalo 6y ago
      > It does appear as if this government really does not want freelancing to be a viable option. This is the key. Freelancers earning their living on the internet are not inherently dependent on government and are much more likely to support opposition and fight back against the corrupt government. It's easy to control people working in overblown administration or public/government sector, or in companies working for them, but controlling free financially independent people not afraid of dying of hunger if they oppose is not that easy.
• jk20 6y ago
  As a victim of IR35 in the UK I can only say that yes, it does happen often. But that's what taxes are mainly for: to prevent citizens from becoming economically independent, otherwise they could start asking why should they take commands from the some state centre.
  • VBprogrammer 6y ago
    Victim? Please. Everyone I know who was a contractor (disguised employee) knew the glory days were numbered, it was only a matter of time before they were required to pay taxes just like the rest of us. The worrying thing about IR35 is not what it does to the middle classes ability to play tax games like the rich, but what implications it has for employment at the wage slave end of the scale.
• praestigiare 6y ago
  Check out GILTI - a 10 year retroactive tax that the US hit me (and all expats who own small businesses) with. A retroactive double tax, at that.