Serbia Promises Consistent Business Taxes

By Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

16 December 2014

Serbia's Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has discussed measures to tackle the shadow economy, at a meeting with business leaders where he confirmed there will be no new taxes on businesses in 2015.

The Fair Business Alliance, a working group of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED), put forward a number of proposals to tackle the grey economy, including the creation of a working group to tackle non-compliance, establishing a "white list" of compliant companies, holding a national campaign, and creating taxpayer lotteries, which could be administered through fiscal receipts.

In response, Vucic explained the measures that the Govenrment has taken to date, and endorsed the proposal to create a "white list." He asked for NALED to put forward one of its representatives to support the Government in planning reforms to improve the business environment in Serbia, with the aim of improving the nation's position in the World Bank's Doing Business rankings. Serbia's overall position has slipped from 77th to 91st, while its ranking for the ease of paying taxes dropped three places to 165th from 162nd.

The Chair of the Fair Competition Alliance, Ramon Weidinger, committed to supporting the Government's reform efforts. He emphasized that the shadow economy amounts to nearly 30 percent of the Serbian economy and is responsible for daily revenue losses worth EUR8m (USD10m).

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