Serbian Foreign Ministry has denied reports by certain national media outlets that Serbian citizens working temporarily abroad are obliged to pay taxes on earned income, not only in the country of temporary residence but also in Serbia.
The Ministry’s statement says that distorted information about insufficiently known facts unreasonably creates concern among citizens, who have flooded Serbia’s diplomatic and consular missions with requests for an explanation.
“We would like to appeal to the Serbian citizens who temporarily live and work abroad not to pay attention to unverified media reports about tax procedures for this specific category. Nothing will fundamentally change in relation to the current practice,” reads the notice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hoping that there are no malicious intentions, but only misunderstandings, behind irresponsible and inaccurate media articles on this topic, the Ministry underlines that Serbia is doing and will continue to do everything to help its diaspora in every way.
Finance Minister Siniša Mali said today that the false information about mandatory payment of taxes for all Serbian citizens working abroad further confuses citizens and that there is no need to cancel the residence in their current country.
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“The rules regarding taxing the income that our citizens earn abroad have not changed since the beginning of this century. People who work and live abroad know where they have to pay taxes,” Mali highlighted in a written statement sent to the media.
As he explained, residents of Serbia are subject to payroll tax in Serbia on the basis of salaries paid to them by employers from abroad, but the double taxation of these salaries is eliminated in accordance with national regulations and on the basis of double taxation agreements.
As a rule, according to these agreements, Serbian citizens will have a residence in the country where they work, which means that they have no tax liability in Serbia on the basis of salaries earned by working abroad.
(RTV, 23.12.2020)
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