Tax reliefs for employers of certain categories already yield results
State Secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Finance Vladimir Ilic said that in 21 days from the enforcement of law amendments that introduced tax reliefs for those who employ trainees younger than 30 and older than 45, as well as invalids, 366 persons from the given categories have been employed.
Ilic said at a press conference that if that tendency continues, between 500 and 600 persons from these categories will be employed every month. He specified that in 21 days, 124 trainees have been employed, 170 persons below 30 years of age, 68 persons older than 45, and four invalids.
He announced that the tax administration will also employ 300 trainees by the end of the year – law graduates, economists and information engineers. The State Secretary said that on the basis of results of a cross evaluation of property in the case of the first fifty taxpayers who had been called to declare their income and property, it was established that almost all of them have very big amounts of undeclared income.
He said that by October 10, solutions for two “average cases” of tax evasion will be made and those two persons will pay approximately €1 million in taxes. As a characteristic example of tax evasion, Ilic gave an example of a person who has a property whose value is several hundred million dinars, but that person is not employed and they have never declared any income.
He said that the Tax Administration will call another 90 persons to declare their income and property next week. By the end of October some musicians and sportsmen will be called and by the end of the year several thousand calls will be made. All that property will be taxed at 20%, and if it is established that property has been gained through tax evasion, a criminal complaint will be filed, the State Secretary said and added that it is difficult to estimate how much undeclared income affected the Serbian budget, since there is accumulated income from previous years and the previous decade as well.
He explained that popular singers, who pay taxes abroad, will also have to declare their income in Serbia, and if it exceeds 1.2 million dinars, when costs and taxes paid in other countries are deducted they will have to pay 10% of the remaining sum. From now on, a cross evaluation of property will be the continuous activity of the Tax Administration, and not just a campaign.