"Nothing is certain but taxes and death," wrote Benjamin Franklin in his letter to Jean-Baptiste le Roy in 1789. Two centuries later, this statement still holds true. People in Serbia who make money online by providing a wide range of services - freelancers - know this best.
The day after the parliamentary and local elections on December 17 of this year, they received decisions from the tax administration on paying taxes for income from 2018.
The representative of the Association of Internet Workers, Tamara Petroviฤ, tells "Vreme" that the problem is that the solutions arrive five years in "reverse".
"I assume that the tactic is that they send solutions for one year once a year because they think that it is easier for us to 'swallow' those figures, compared to the amount for all five years. The solution for 2018 could have arrived in January 2019, but I guess there are no capacities for such a dynamic", says Petroviฤ.
The Tax Administration of the Republic of Serbia determined the obligation for taxpayers of the so-called "freelancers" who, in the period from January to the end of December 2018, generated income based on the agreed fee from copyright and related rights and the agreed fee for the work performed, on which tax is paid through self-taxation.
Tax obligations were determined based on data from commercial banks on the realized income of natural persons, the Tax Administration announced.
They state that freelancers can pay it in 120 monthly installments, and that the first one must be paid no later than February 19, 2024.
Workers without protection
The "Vremena" interviewee was a member of the working group when they freelancers negotiated with the Government 2020 on the debt that was established retroactively for the previous five years, what is the maximum statute of limitations for tax debts.
"Despite all the negotiations with the Government, freelancers really did not get their category or legal form. Some may be entrepreneurs, but all others who work for one employer, who do not pass the test of independence, they are condemned to this tax solution that did not lead to us getting our rights. These are still disenfranchised people in the sense that they do not have any rights as workers", says Petroviฤ.
She explains that freelancers are only entitled to health and pension insurance, but any other form of security is out of their reach.
"We cannot get a place in kindergarten for a child, young women who want to start a family cannot exercise their rights based on their work... You cannot protect yourself from the employer if he is not in the country, you do not have protection against dismissal, you do not have annual rest, you don't have sick leave..." Petroviฤ enumerates.
Latest measurement Gigameter, a tool for research and analysis of the freelancer market in Serbia and the region conducted by the Center for Public Policy Research, showed that the number of digital workers in Serbia is decreasing.
After significant double-digit growth in the post-pandemic period, the latest measurements reveal a significant drop in the number of digital workers in Serbia on the leading platform - as much as 17,8 percent.
However, our interlocutor claims that those figures are unreliable because the exact number of people who earn as freelancers is not actually known.
"The data that exist are those that are monitored by our associations on Facebook, and data from the tax administration on how many people submitted applications in general. Officially, 4000 people are taxed in this way. Both freelancers and entrepreneurs are included together and it's a general confusion. How many people really gave up earning money in this way is debatable, because the question is where did they go?", asks Petroviฤ.
Freelancer - both teacher and hairdresser
In Serbia, 328.000 people are engaged in entrepreneurship, which includes freelancers, according to the data of the Agency for Economic Registers.
A freelancer is not the same as an entrepreneur, although it belongs to this group. He is freed from many administrative difficulties. It does not have to be registered with APR. And he doesn't have to pay a fixed amount of tax.
A freelancer is not an employee, because he is not in an employment relationship, but performs agreed tasks for the employer. But he is not a freelancer either.
We most often associate freelancers with the IT world and working for a foreign employer. But in Serbia, they can also be hairdressers or teachers.
