Serbia's freelancers have been fighting the state decision to tax their incomes years back by organising protests and receiving the support of some opposition parties and movements on Friday, after unsuccessful negotiations with the Government.
The freelancers maintain that the state cannot retroactively tax their income earned online and that they are not responsible „for years of the state bureaucracy incompetence.“
„Serbia’s authorities have been awarding huge subsidies to foreign investors, free land and writing off debts to all (ruling) Serbian Progressive Party’s henchmen… Now, they would like to destroy the most progressive entrepreneurial activity in the country and us to pay for their wrong policy and empty budget,“ the freelancers said in a statement.
The Civic Movement activists said the freelancers’ demands were justified and logical and called on the Government to suggest a systematic and just solution for the online workers as soon as possible.
They said the laws did not recognise online workers or put them in an unequal position. According to them, the freelancers should not pay for the state administration’s previous inaction or wrong work.
„We aim to prevent the adoption of the draft tax model for freelancers which envisages more than a half of the income from the past and current obligations to be paid,“ Miran Pogacar, the head of the Online Workers’ Association.
After the failed negotiations with the Government, the freelancers started a protest outside the Parliament.