Taxation of Freelancers And a New Tax Declaration PP OPO-K

The Minister of Finance issued the Rulebook on Amendments and Supplements to the Rulebook on Tax Returns on Calculated Tax through Self-Taxation and Associated Contributions to Earnings, i.e. other types of income from a natural person as a taxpayer (“Official Gazette of the RS”, No. 21/2023), which entered into force on March 25, 2023 (hereinafter: Rulebook).

The rulebook introduced a new tax return on the PP OPO-K form – Tax return on calculated tax through self-taxation and related contributions on income generated quarterly, by a natural person as a taxpayer, which will be submitted by natural persons, so-called freelancers, i.e. natural persons who earn income from the contracted fee from copyright and related rights and income from the contracted fee for the work performed, in a situation where the tax is determined according to the self-taxation system (when they earn income from persons who, when paying, do not have the obligation to calculate taxes and contributions in Serbia).
Namely, the new tax return of PP OPO-K was introduced considering that in the system of taxation of citizens’ income from January 1, 2023, in the application of two new models of quarterly taxation, two incomes are mentioned.
Natural persons as taxpayers, who declare and pay their tax liability quarterly (for income generated in a period of 3 months), according to the self-taxation system, submit an application on the PP OPO-K form for the income they have generated starting from the second quarter (from 1. April 2023 until June 30, 2023). The deadline for submitting the application is 30 days from the end of the quarter (for the second quarter, the PP OPO-K application must be submitted no later than July 31, because July 30 falls on a Sunday – a non-working day).
When it comes to the income they earn in the first quarter (from January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023), taxpayers have 2 options at their disposal:

  • The application can be submitted on the PP OPO-K form, with the proviso that in that case the deadline for submitting the application is not 30 days from the day the first quarter has expired, but the deadline is 30 days from the next day in relation to the day when the technical conditions for submitting the application are met on the PP OPO-K form;
  • The application can be submitted on the PP OPO form, and in that case the deadline for submitting the application is 30 days from the end of the first quarter.

The reason for this situation is the fact that the technical support for submitting an application on the PP OPO-K form is still being prepared. It is expected that the technical support will be operational soon, and a notice will be posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration when the technical support becomes operational.
Technical support should make it easier for natural persons to submit an application on the PP OPO-K form, while the technical support service will not be available for submitting an application on the PP OPO form.

It is expected that the user manual will be published soon, as well as explanations regarding the submission and filling out of applications on the PP OPO and PP OPO-K forms.

Annual personal income tax on income earned in 2022

The annual personal income tax on income generated in 2022 is calculated and paid according to the self-taxation system, instead of according to the decision of the tax authority, as was the case until now.

In practice, this means that the Tax Administration, based on the available data from the official records of citizens’ incomes for the year 2022, will pre-fill the tax return for the determination of the annual income tax of the citizens for the year 2022 and post it as a working version of the return (status “in preparation” ”) to the ePorezi portal.

All natural persons who in 2022 earned an income higher than three times the average annual salary per employee paid in the Republic of Serbia, which for 2022 amounts to RSD 3,719,376.00, are obliged to no later than March 15, 2023. year on the ePorezi portal to check the data presented in the pre-filled tax return and to make any corrections independently if they do not agree with the data presented in their pre-filled tax return, and to submit the corrected return in the same place by accepting the “Sign and submit” option.

The most common example of supplementary data entry refers to the number of dependent members of the taxpayer’s household.

If the taxpayer does not submit a tax return by May 15, 2023, the Tax Administration will do it for him.