The fourth round table on lump-sum taxation focusing on IT sector held in Belgrade
The last in a series of regional round tables within the campaign Lump-Sum Taxpayers Month was organized in Belgrade on 25 September, with the aim to identify the challenges and offer possible solutions for improving the lump-sum taxation system in Serbia, particularly in IT industry, through public-private dialogue.
The event brought together representatives of the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Finance, Tax Administration, Association for the Development of Entrepreneurship, National Public Policy Secretariat, web portal and service Paušal.rs, representatives of IT community in Serbia: 30 hills, Seven Bridges Genomics and GoDaddy, as well as NALED, business associations, and individual entrepreneurs interested in this reform.
Milivoje Jovanović from the Association for the Development of Entrepreneurship said that the reform for improving this system was initiated with the intention to help the "small" entrepreneurs and ease their business. Sofija Popara Parmaković, the Director of web portal and service Paušal.rs indicated several important features that should be introduced in the lump-sum taxation system - automatization of the process, linking the Tax Administration system with the Serbian Business Registers Agency and the National Health Insurance Fund, possibility of predicting all expenses during registration of entrepreneurs, and determining the fields of work that fall within lump-sum taxation according to the business activity codes.
Danijela Jakovljević from Tax Admiistration said that the key problems highlighted by entrepreneurs include the long period of waiting for the tax decisions, and the subjective assessment by tax inspectors in determining the criteria for assigning the amount of tax liabilities. She spoke about the preliminary plan for modernization of lump-sum taxation system by introducing an application software which would be accessible via the Tax Administration website, where future entrepreneurs would be able to enter the criteria and receive the concrete amount of tax liabilities, and then decide whether they want to register as entrepreneurs or not. The digitalization of the Tax Administration's system was also supported by Nenad Paunović from the Prime Minister's Office, stressing that digitalization of public administration, which would ease and simplify the procedures for businesses and citizens, stands as one of the Government's top priorities.
Svetlana Kuzmanović Živanović from the Ministry of Finance said that the Regulation on the Criteria for Lump-Sum Taxation will be changed in the upcoming period, while the changes will depend on the initiated discussions, the proposals receied within the Lump-Sum Taxation Month, and the Government's fiscal policy. The Government's Working group will be established shortly, and it is estimated that the changes in lump-sum taxation might come into force starting from 1 January 2020, said Jelena Bojović on behalf of NALED.
The campaign Lump Sum Taxation Month is organized within the four-year Public Private Dialogue for Growth Project, financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented by NALED in cooperation with the National Public Policy Secretariat.
The recommendations for improving the lump-sum taxation system received so far are available on the website www.jpd.rs.
