Do seafarers have to pay contributions?
The Ministry of Labor and Employment says that all those who work abroad do not need to pay PIO contributions.
Seafarers and other citizens working abroad should not pay contributions for PIO because there is no valid legal basis, according to the opinion of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs.
Citizens of Serbia who work abroad (as employees according to the regulations of a foreign country, i.e. as persons who receive contracted compensation, for example those who work on ships sailing under the flag of a foreign country, workers who are employed in foreign airlines...) and from abroad payers generate income on the basis of which they are taxpayers of Serbia, they do not have the status of insured person according to the regulations on pension and disability insurance, it is assessed in a document sent to the Association of Seafarers of Serbia.
The opinion of the ministry was submitted after the Tax Administration of Serbia issued 7,896 tax rulings, which determined the arrears of salary tax from 2017 for all those who receive wages from abroad, including freelancers and seafarers.
There is no difference between workers on the Internet and workers on overseas ships for the Tax Administration. Everyone who received earnings from abroad through banks in Serbia must pay tax and it does not expire for five years. For that number of natural persons, tax obligations were determined by the decision.
It is prescribed that the taxable income that a natural person earns on the basis of the contracted fee for the work performed, on which the tax is paid through self-taxation, is the gross income realized in the quarter less the standardized expenses of 96,000 dinars or in the amount of 57,900 dinars increased by 34 percent of the gross income realized in the quarter. The obligations determined by the said decision shall be paid in 120 equal monthly instalments within 15 days of the end of each month, with the first instalment due on February 17, 2023.
If the oblige does not pay the due obligations within the prescribed period, collection will be carried out by means of coercion, by passing a decision on coercive collection. The costs of forced collection and the increase of the tax debt by five percent on the day of the start of forced collection, on which interest is calculated, are borne by the taxpayer.
Source: politika.rs