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Serbia · Contractor taxation guide · 2026
Hiring in Serbia?
Here’s where the money actually goes
Start with the calculator: enter what you pay and compare the four ways a Serbian contractor can be set up. Below it — what each tax actually costs, the filing dates, and the nine-criterion test that decides whether they count as a contractor — and what it costs you when they don’t.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Serbian rules turn on the specifics of each engagement, so treat every number here as a starting point and check your own case.
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Three taxes.
Here’s what each one costs
Serbia taxes an entrepreneur’s profit at 10% and a self-assessing freelancer at 10% or 20%, depending on which deduction they pick. Contributions are where the three routes actually diverge.
An entrepreneur pays 10% on profit. A freelancer picks each quarter: 20% after a fixed deduction, or 10% after a smaller one plus 34% of gross.
Today, 2:15pm
Pension and disability – 24%
Tomorrow, 11am
Health – 10.3%
Tomorrow, 2pm
Personal salary – on the set salary
Pension and disability runs 24%, health 10.3%. What differs is the base: inside the flat-rate decision, rising with income for a freelancer, or a self-set salary under the personal-salary election.
Today, 2:15pm
Pension and disability – 24%
Tomorrow, 11am
Health – 10.3%
Tomorrow, 2pm
Personal salary – on the set salary
Serbia's eco fee applies to every entrepreneur, flat-rate included. The filing is due by 30 April on Form 1; the municipality then issues a decision and it is paid quarterly. IT and consulting sit in the lowest band.
Today, 2:15pm
Small impact (IT, consulting) – $49
Tomorrow, 11am
Medium impact – $99
Tomorrow, 2pm
Large impact – $197
A year in the life of a Serbian contractor’s taxes
Day 1
Register, then pick a model
Registration with the APR takes a few days. The choice between flat-rate and bookkeeping, and between profit and a personal salary, sets everything after.
19 January,
then monthly
then monthly
The flat-rate bill arrives, then repeats
The Tax Administration posts the decision to the ePorezi mailbox — 2026 delivery began 19 January. Paid monthly by the 15th, whatever was invoiced.
By 30 April
The eco fee filing
Form 1 to the local tax administration, then a decision and quarterly payments. About $49 a year.
Quarterly, plus 30 days
Freelancers file PP OPO-K
30 April, 30 July, 30 October and 30 January. The model can change each quarter — $1,090 deducted at 20%, or $657 plus 34% at 10%.
Watch continuously
The $59,000 line
Cross about $59,000 of turnover in a year and flat-rate closes. Invoice date decides, not payment date.
Before you sign
Deadlines are the contractor’s problem. The contract is yours. Serbia judgesindependence client by client, and six of the nine criteria it uses are written by you, not filed by them. All nine are further down this page.
Nine criteria decide if this is employment
Serbia has a written misclassification test: nine criteria, assessed separately for each client. Tick five and your contractor is no longer independent of you, and everything they invoiced you gets taxed a different way.
You set their working hours, or their time off needs your approval without a matching cut in fee
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They normally work from premises or a place you designate
You run or organise their training or professional development
You found them through a job advertisement or a recruitment agency
You supply or fund their tools, or you manage how the work gets done beyond briefing and checking results
You are 70% or more of their income in a 12-month period
Your contract doesn’t put the usual business risk on them
Your contract bars other clients, beyond a limited number of your direct competitors
They have worked for you 130 or more days in a 12-month period, counting any part of a day
1 of 9. Still reads as contracting. Keep the contract matchingreality, and check the income share with them.
Three things to ask before you agree a rate
Which of the three models they're on, how much the tax office set their monthly bill at, and whether they filed by 15 December. All three change the number they quote you.
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Which model they’re on
The same invoice can cost 10% or 45%, depending which of the three routes they are on. You are not choosing it, but you are pricing against it.
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Their monthly flat-rate bill
The flat-rate amount is set by the Tax Administration, not by income, so it cannot be worked out from a rate. Published ranges run $300–$590 a month. Ask for the figure on theirs.
The 15 December deadline
The personal-salary election is filed on form OLZ by 15 December. Miss it and that route is closed for twelve months, which surfaces as a rate request in January.
The questions
The seven that come up most when companies hire in Serbia.
Our contractor is already registered in Serbia. What does a platform add?
Registration is their side of the arrangement, and it is genuinely done. The independence test is the other side, and most of it is yours — hours, premises, training, equipment, business risk, exclusivity, and how you found them. A properly registered entrepreneur on a contract that scores five of nine is still a reclassification case. The registration doesn’t fix the engagement.
Who actually pays the tax — us or the contractor?
The contractor. They file and pay their own tax and contributions under whichever of the three models they are on. Your job is paying the agreed invoice — and the rate you agree decides what is left of it after their taxes.
What happens if the independence test is failed?
The income from that client is re-taxed as other income: 20% on gross with no deduction for costs, plus 24% pension and disability and 10.3% health if they are not insured elsewhere. It reaches back across the engagement, not just the audited year.
Is contracting in Serbia a bad idea, then?
No, and we would rather say so plainly. Contracting is the normal, cheaper and usually correct way to work with people in Serbia, and most local advisers will tell you the same. It has one specific, scoreable failure mode. That is a reason to draft the contract carefully, not a reason to employ everyone. Kleos acts as Contractor of Record, so the contract, the classification check and the payments sit with us rather than with your team.
Flat-rate, bookkeeping or freelancer — which should they be on?
Not your call, but it moves your costs. Flat-rate is a fixed monthly bill and the simplest, capped at about $59,000 a year. Bookkeeping with the personal-salary election is the only route where the effective rate falls as income rises. The self-assessing freelancer route needs no registration at all and gets more expensive in a straight line.
Do we need to worry about the $59,000 limit?
Only indirectly, and it is worth tracking. Above about $59,000 of turnover in a calendar year the flat-rate regime closes and your contractor moves to full bookkeeping. Invoice date decides which year it falls in, not payment date — a December invoice settled in January counts as December.
