Decree on Fiscal Benefits has been amended

The Serbian Government has amended the Decree on Fiscal Benefits and Direct Payments (“Decree”). According to the new wording of the Decree:

• all direct payments must be used by employers for salaries by 15 August 2020 at the latest; in this way, all doubts about when the direct payments have to be used have been eliminated;
• direct payments payable to entrepreneurs and microenterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises in June and July 2020 will be reduced by the number of employees whose employment has ended between 10 April and 30 April 2020 or between 1 May and 31 May 2020, respectively;
• direct payments payable to large enterprises in June and July 2020 will be made only for those employees who have been sent off work for at least 15 working days in April or May 2020, respectively;
• dividend payments have been specified and are now defined as any kind of payments made by a Serbian company to its shareholders based on their shares (equity interest).

Two new decrees have been adopted in the past few days:

1. The Decree on Postponing the Deadline for Acquiring the Status of a Qualified Newly Employed Worker, according to which a person who was not insured as an employee or a shareholder of a company and who was employed in his or her company during 2019 will be considered a qualified newly employed worker if he or she has obtained the status of an ensured person between 1 January 2020 and the expiry of 60 days after the end of the state of emergency (instead of 30 April 2020).  
2. The Decree on Postponing the Deadlines for the Annual Assembly of Companies, the Submission of Financial Statements, Corporate Income Tax Returns and Income Tax Returns of Entrepreneurs and the Validity of Auditors’ and Appraisers’ Licenses, according to which:

• the deadline for the submission of corporate income tax returns will be postponed by 60 days after the end of the state of emergency for legal entities whose financial year corresponds to the calendar year and for entrepreneurs;
• the deadline for the submission of corporate income tax returns will be postponed by 60 days in the case of taxpayers whose financial year is different from the calendar year only if the usual deadline for the submission falls under the state of emergency.