It's not a new tax it's existing legislation that was not enforced. By law they (the government) have a right to review your income in foreign currency for the past 5 years. So now freelancers are being taxed for those 5 years and are expected to pay, potentially thousands of dollars, in a short time period. Most of them knew this way of working was in the gray area at best and that the law is just not being enforced.
There was always an option of opening a small business, paying relatively small amount of taxes and doing it legally. This way you get medical insurance, and at least some pension. Of course this is not a good option for people that freelance as a side gig since taxes could range between 100 and 400 euros depending on what type of freelance jobs you did and where you live.
This looks like the Serbian government's mistake and not something that workers did. Mindboggling the government is now acting like a thug even if it's the one to blame.
To say that it was not enforced is just a one way to look at it. The obligation, per law, lay with the tax payer (income earner), and government could do random audits (which they are now doing, except they are not very random).
The 5 year of backtaxes comes from the statute of limitations on tax obligations being up to 5 years, but in theory, if someone owning taxes does not explicitly call out the law about the expiration of debt, they are liable for any tax debt even longer than that.
We have been using Tabulator for some time now and are really happy with it. Looking forward to trying out v4. Thanks for all the hard work you've put in Oli :)
I still wouldn't like it as I wouldn't have any control over the content I post. Let's say a company you hate buys a relatively common word. You can't use it without advertising the company you hate. They have effectively stolen that word from you :)
I was rooting for the OP up to the point when he said he was charging for the app. I know there wasn't some huge profit to be made there unless it's really huge school, but still. If he wanted to do something good for the school and fellow students shouldn't the app be free?
Profit = Sales - Apple's cut - Apple Developer Account annual fee - iTunes App Store annual fee.
What makes you think he will be making a profit on a $0.99 app ?
Likely he was not making any profit at all. Are you suggesting he shouldn't try to claw back some of his costs ?
And now they reject his app; he takes it down and definitely won't claw back anything. Now he is down $200 + time and effort. Yeah, screw him for trying to make money off the backs of anyone.
Either way, IMO, students shouldn't be the ones paying (yes, I know it's only 1$). Maybe he should have made an arrangement with the school so they cover the Apple fees or fund it through donations.
The information was on the web. Students didn't have to pay the $1 to get to the information; they would have paid it because he made a nice, convenient app. Or they could go in via the website and dig through it themselves.
Did you read the story ? He tried to talk to the school but after several school employees told him they liked his app they changed their tune and decided he was ripping them off. T hey could have worked to understand what he had done and offered him his costs to open up the app but they decided not to.
Because it's wrong to be compensated for one's efforts, even a tiny little bit, even with the risk of being shutdown and in the hole for Apple's fees before seeing the first penny?
There was always an option of opening a small business, paying relatively small amount of taxes and doing it legally. This way you get medical insurance, and at least some pension. Of course this is not a good option for people that freelance as a side gig since taxes could range between 100 and 400 euros depending on what type of freelance jobs you did and where you live.