Serbia and retroactive tax enforcement

[galadrel]

In Serbia in the past 4 months, the Serbian Government decided to enforce a 20 year old law that has never been applied before, apparently according to the tax office 99,7% of people that were receiving money with SWIFT/PayPal withdrawals to their foreign currency accounts never actually paid any taxes (tax + social welfare), doing this they are cutting down the entire industry of freelancers sending them into debt, even those who earned 300 usd a month which is not enough to live off anyways, I live in Serbia but i rarely ever received big payments through banks on EUR accounts, i had some but i doubt that will be the reason they'll be inviting me for a talk, I had used Transferwise and used debit card actively for the past 7-8months, every month around 800-900 USD spent, what are the chances of the tax man inviting me to a talk? It is a random question but I do not want to fool myself with false hope.

Thee government certainly has the audacity and balls to go back 5 years and charge you near 100% tax + social welfare (which you cant use, unless you have a time machine) for your earnings, though I'm not worried about that, I only used my card past 7-8months, so even if they do, i probably will not get any interest, or at least significant on the bill they send me.

 

[Martin Everson]

I would imagine you are in the low end of the scale in terms of people they will go after first. But 99.7% is basically 100% of those people then...lol.

I would definitely get a plan together based on what the penalties might be and what is best in your situation. You may be better off coming clean if any tax is due rather than waiting for a knock on the door. You don't sound like a major offender. However it comes down to what any penalty for tax evasion is in Serbia. If the penalty is a joke I doubt that will be an incentive for potential evaders to come forward.