December 18 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government said the country's parliament adopted a two-year tax exemption for startups, starting in October 2018.
Startups with a workforce of up to nine employees with high school or academic degrees will be exempted from paying income tax and social security contributions for two years after their incorporation, the government said in a statement on Friday.
An analysis of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) shows that by taking advantage of the cost exemption, entrepreneurs could cut costs by up to 250,000 dinars ($2,500/2,100 euro) per employee with a minimum wage, the government said.
Moreover, parliament adopted an increase of the threshold for the non-taxable part of the salaries of employees to 15,000 dinars from 11,790 dinars as of January 1, 2018, the government added.
In October, the government said at least 8,000 citizens will take advantage of the tax exemption, while the cost for the fisc would stand at 1.9 billion dinars in 2018, or one-eighth of what the government spends on incentives for startups.
The average annual number of start-ups in Serbia declined to 33,000 from 45,500 over the last 10 years, the government said back then, citing data from the country's Business Registers Agency.
(1 euro = 118.728 dinars)