I used to have some serbian staff, and this seems mostly true, but they had one hell of a time contracting globally. Basically in a lot of countries you either

I used to have some serbian staff, and this seems mostly true, but they had one hell of a time contracting globally. Basically in a lot of countries you either are a FT equivalent and get bennies or you are not an FTE and get nada. But the serbs had some social outrage over foreign companies contracting to their citizens but not paying tax in that country. From what I gather its due to healthcare costs. So they did something, (difficult for me to ingest as a foreigner) but it seems that either: 1. You have to register and pay corporate tax in Serbia, then you can hire locals without issue 2. The staff member has to register as a business and pay corporate + payroll tax or they do it dodgy and hope the tax man doesnt ruin their life. This had the effect of creating a cottage industry of middlemen who take a slice between employer and employee which is probably the least freedom oriented outcome possible.