In a few clicks - The freelancer's tax filing starts via the new portal

Starting tomorrow, all freelancers in Serbia will have their own place on the Internet. On the new portal, freelancers will be able to quickly and simply report the income they have earned while working as a "freelancer" and with a more favourable tax treatment, settle their obligations and exercise the right to pension and health insurance. During July, freelancers in Serbia need to submit a tax return for the first two quarters of this year.

The portal contains a number of useful tools for all existing and potential freelancers - a self-assessment test on whether they meet the requirements to be a freelancer, a tax liability calculator based on which they will choose one of the two options for taxation, as well as a guide in which they will find answers to the most important questions. Estimates are that the portal could initially be used by up to 100,000 freelancers who earn income by working for other natural persons in Serbia or for natural and legal persons abroad..

The new freelancer self-taxation model is the result of a year's work and negotiations by the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Administration, the Cabinet of the President of the Government of Serbia, as well as representatives of the freelancer association, and the development of the portal was supported through the StarTech innovation promotion project of the Philip Morris company, which is implemented by NALED.

- Cooperation with freelancers within working groups was of key importance on the way to finding the best solution for regulating the rights and obligations of freelancers in Serbia, which was (the result of this portal) brought about by this portal. This solution is suitable for everyone, whether they occasionally do some work or it is their daily routine. We will continue to be there, if any additional consultation and clarification is needed - said Slavica Savičić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

The director of the team for IT and entrepreneurship in the cabinet of the Prime Minister, Nenad Paunović, announced that according to previous research, Belgrade was among the top 10 destinations for digital nomads, and that he believes that the new model of taxation of freelancers will encourage them to come even more.

- Our goal, which we have now reached, is that you can comfortably do business all over the world from Serbia. The Freelancer portal brings a precise solution for everything, because we insisted that taxes be paid in as few clicks as possible. The secret of the success of the new platform is the involvement of all interested actors - concluded Paunović.

On the new portal, when submitting the tax application, freelancers will enter the total amount of income generated in the quarter, mark whether they are health insured on some other basis, and finally choose one of the two self-taxation models. After submitting the application, they will receive a payment slip with a QR code for quick payment. On the portal, they will be able to keep records of all payments and, at the end of the quarter, drag all payments into the tax application with one click.

Ivan Miletić, director of corporate affairs for Southeast Europe of the Philip Morris company, reminded that on the initiative of StarTech, the extension of the tax increase limit was adopted for lump sum taxpayers and freelancers were given the opportunity to pay the lowest amount of contributions in order to be health insured.

- We hope to continue the series of implementation of good reforms and as the first next step we nominate the introduction of a unified payment of taxes for entrepreneurs, which would not only save their time and money, but also reduce the room for mistakes, which has been a frequent case so far. We will continue in this direction, and this is an ideal opportunity to reveal to you that we are preparing another B2B portal, which will aim to connect small entrepreneurs and large businesses according to the principle of supply and demand - announced Miletić.

The executive director of NALED, Violeta Jovanović, explained that the work on the Freelancer Portal is not finished and that it will continue to be improved.

- Further steps are planned to make this reform as comprehensive as possible, and the portal more advanced and useful. What awaits us in the future are trainings for public servants and freelancers, development of untimely tax returns, generation and filling of the database of questions and answers through the contact form, monitoring and further reporting on the use of the portal, and what we propose to the institutions is to link the Freelancers portal with the website of the Central register of the mandatory social security and the development of the English version of the portal, since non-residents can also be freelancers - said Jovanović.

The event brought together all interested freelancer associations and individuals who hire them, as well as institutions that participated in the reform - the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Serbia, the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Administration, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, CROSO and funds social insurance.

The Freelancers portal will be available from July 1 at the address  frilenseri.purs.gov.rs.