New Tax Rules for Freelance Workers in Serbia

Freelancers in 2022 will not, after all, be paying taxes quarterly

The tax treatment of freelancers for 2021, which is envisaged by the latest amendments to the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law on Contributions for Compulsory Social Insurance, will be valid in 2022 as well. Although a decision was previously made, according to which freelancers are obliged to submit a tax return every three months from 1 January 2022 – quarterly, this decision will not come into force.

The initial idea was to pass a new law by the end of the year that would regulate the status of freelancers, but the working group for drafting still needs more time. Namely, according to the decision submitted to the associations of freelancers, the working group should prepare proposals regulating the status of natural persons employed by foreign employers who do not have a registered activity in the Republic of Serbia and self-employed persons, who work through online platforms – freelancers.

However, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has accepted the proposal of the Association of Online Workers (AOW) that, according to the current calculation, taxes should be paid next year as well. This means that, according to the current calculation from April, when the Law on Personal Income Tax was amended, freelancers who earn a little more than EUR 500.00 per month are not obliged to pay taxes, then those who earn about EUR 1,000.00 per month should set aside about 13 % of income for tax purposes, and those earning about EUR 2,000.00 about 20% for tax payment. According to the current solution, there is no self-taxation, i.e., self-declaration of income. The Tax Administration will continue to send decisions to freelancers who earn more than RSD 768,000.00 per year.