Flat-rate taxpayers like doing the tax calculations on their own
Flat-rate taxed entrepreneurs and those considering starting their own business have used the indicative tax calculator on the website www.jpd.rs 166,500 times in the previous year, to calculate their taxes for the following four years. The strongest interest was shown for the areas of programming, consulting and legal affairs, and the tax liabilities were mostly checked by entrepreneurs aged between 30 and 40, kaže Dušan Vasiljević, Entrepreneurship and Investment Director in NALED.
We finalized last year with nearly 123,000 registered flat-rate taxed entrepreneurs in Serbia, and the new Decree on Flat-Rate Taxation specified the formula for calculating the expenses, and the annual increase of taxes was limited to a maximum of 10% by 2023. In addition to better-defined areas of work that can be included in the flat-rate taxation system, another benefit is that the taxpayers now receive tax decisions at the beginning of each year, in electronic form, via the eTaxes portal.
- Upon introducing the new model of flat-rate taxation, we no longer need to annually issue 350,000 tax decisions and reports in paper, and we also eliminated the room for delays. This also means that the Tax Administration capacities have been eased, and a certain number of inspectors who used to perform these tasks can now perform more tax controls, which further improved our efficiency and results – says Dragana Marković, Director of Tax Administration that implemented this reform in cooperation with NALED and the Association for Entrepreneurship Development from Niš, within the four-year Public Private Dialogue for Growth project, financed by USAID.
Total revenues based on flat-rate taxation have maintained the same level in 2020 compared to the previous year, which testifies that the main goal of the reform was not to increase the taxpayers' liabilities, but to make the system more fair, predictable and neutral. For many taxpayers, the liabilities even became lower.
The Decree prescribes a lower tax base during the first three years of work for beginners, people younger than 30 and older than 55, new mothers, persons with disabilities and for old crafts. The reform stipulates less bureaucracy for the registration, so newly registered entrepreneurs do not have to file a tax application and a request for flat-rate taxation, and they receive the decision determining the monthly amount of taxes and contributions within 48 hours.
- Working with handicrafts for more than 10 years, I have to say that the incentives for old crafts have been very helpful, particularly with the impact of COVID-19 crisis. Also, the fact that we no longer need to visit the counters for tax certificates, and that we even receive the pre-filled payment orders electronically, saves a significant amount of time and I believe this will encourage many people to start their own business – says Marija Ivanković Jurišić, managing her own business Marija Handmade.
