Serbia mulls one-year tax exemption for start-ups as of 2018

Finance minister Dusan Vujovic has supported the proposal of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) for the introduction of the tax exemption, the government said in a statement on Monday.

A working group should be established to prepare the regulation needed for the introduction of the measure as of 2018, Vujovic said during a meeting with representatives of NALED, a Serbian NGO.

"I support this initiative because it is very important to improve the chances of young people to start a business. The tax exemption would not be a big budget expense," Vujovic said.

An analysis of NALED shows that at least 8,000 citizens will take advantage of the proposed tax exemption, while the cost for the budget would stand at 1.9 billion dinars in 2018, or one-eighth of what the government spends on incentives for start-ups, the government said.

The average annual number of start-ups in Serbia declined to 33,000 from 45,500 over the last 10 years, the government said, citing data from the country's Business Registers Agency.