How does a seafarer prove days spent outside Serbia?

Who is a tax resident of Serbia?

Under Article 7 of the Personal Income Tax Law (Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana), a resident of Serbia (poreski rezident) is an individual who meets any of these conditions:

• has their domicile (prebivalište) in the territory of Serbia;
• has their centre of business and vital interests in Serbia;
• stays in Serbia, continuously or with interruptions, for 183 days or more in a 12-month period that begins or ends in the tax year.

A resident pays tax in Serbia on income earned abroad as well, including salary earned on board. A non-resident pays tax in Serbia only on income earned in Serbia.

What does the 183-day rule mean for seafarers?

The 183-day rule is only one of the three conditions. If you have your domicile in Serbia, or your family lives here and your flat and property are here, the Tax Administration (Poreska uprava) may treat you as a resident even when you spent most of the year on board.

Days spent on board and outside Serbia are still the starting point: the 183-day condition depends on them, and they also help show where the centre of your interests is. If you are at the same time a resident of another country, the double tax treaty (ugovor o izbegavanju dvostrukog oporezivanja) between Serbia and that country decides, where there is one.

If you are a resident of Serbia and have already paid tax on the same salary abroad, that tax counts, under the conditions set by law, as a tax credit (poreski kredit) against the tax you pay in Serbia. The tax paid is proved with a document from the foreign tax authority.

Which documents prove days outside Serbia?

A statement that you were on board, without documents, is as a rule not enough. The days are proved with documents that match one another:

• your seaman’s book (pomorska knjižica) with the embarkations and disembarkations recorded;
• employment contracts with the shipowner (brodar) or agency, for each embarkation;
• certificates of the periods spent on board from the shipowner or agency;
• your passport with its stamps, and the tickets for travel to and from the ship.

Make a table by period: date of embarkation, date of disembarkation, the ship and the document that proves it. That way you see at once whether any period is not covered by evidence.

What if you have received a tax assessment?

Check the tax assessment (poresko rešenje) at once: which year it was issued for, which income was taxed and on what data. An appeal (žalba) can be lodged against an assessment of the Tax Administration.

Is a deadline running? Call +381 65 2935 637 or send an enquiry with the tax assessment.

An appeal does not postpone payment of the assessed tax. If a tax audit was carried out before the assessment, you can submit objections to the tax audit record (zapisnik o poreskoj kontroli) within five days of the day you receive the record.

When do you not need a lawyer?

If the Tax Administration only asks you for information or documents and does not dispute your status, you can submit the evidence yourself, with a short cover letter listing the enclosures. Keep a copy of everything you submit and proof of the day you submitted it.