Insurant qualification is initiated on the first day and terminated on the last day of employment, self-employment, farming or contract work and it cannot be acquired by people younger than 15.

Insurant qualification is established based on insurance application and insurance withdrawal form (M form). The insurant qualification initiation is established based on the insurance application and insurant qualification termination is established based on the insurance withdrawal.

If the contributions payer has not submitted the insurance application or withdrawal form for a person, the person may submit a request for insurant qualification establishment, qualification initiation and/or termination. The insurant qualification establishment procedure can be initiated by the employer as well as by the Fund ex officio.

Upon receiving the request for insurant qualification establishment, the Fund issues a written decision.

Insurant qualification may be established for the period from 01 JAN 1965 onwards, based on written evidence, records and employer’s documentation only.

It is not possible to establish insurant qualification and insurance base by means of witness statements.

Single application for compulsory social insurance

From 1 October 2010, registration of insurants and insured persons for the purpose of realization of rights in pension and disability insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance (social insurance) is performed at a single desk by submitting a single social insurance application, and it is up to employers to choose whether to submit the single application form to Pension and Disability Fund or National Health Insurance Fund.  

Single application for compulsory social insurance includes the compulsory social insurance application, insurance data change form and compulsory social insurance withdrawal form. Data contained in the single application refer to insurant or insured person general information, insurance information and employer information.

The single application must be accompanied by evidence required to establish insurant or insured person qualification. The kind of evidence required depends on insurance basis.

The applicant is issued a single application receipt pursuant to Article 13 of the Law on Compulsory Social Insurance Central Register

Single application is submitted to the Fund organizational unit (branch or branch office) operating in the applicant’s place of residence or to the National Health Insurance Fund or its organizational unit.

By means of this single desk application employers can save a lot of time, with simpler social insurance registration and withdrawal procedures as well as much less paperwork. Finally, it will also reduce the workload in Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, National Health Insurance Fund and National Employment Office, where almost a threefold reduction in the number of documents is expected, considering the previous annual average of 6.5 million documents of virtually identical contents.

Pursuant to the Law on Compulsory Social Insurance Central Register, the institution which receives the single application is legally bound to forward the required data to other compulsory social insurance organizations on the same day the data is received. This system will be used until the introduction of Central Register Unified Database. 

Which employee categories are obliged to pay contributions

The following employed insurants are obliged to pay contributions:

• employed persons, i.e. employed by a company, other legal entity, government institution, local government unit institution or individual;
• civilians employed by the army, army units and institutions;
• selected or appointed persons who are paid for the function they perform;
• persons employed outside their employer’s premises in accordance with labor regulations;
• employees directed to work abroad and/or employees of a company which does business or provides services abroad, unless covered by compulsory insurance per the foreign country regulations or unless specified otherwise by international agreements;
• Serbian citizens employed on the territory of the Republic of Serbia by foreign or international organizations and institutions, foreign diplomatic and consular offices or foreign legal entities or individuals, unless specified otherwise by international agreements;
• foreign citizens or individuals without citizenship employed on the territory of the Republic of Serbia by foreign international organizations or institutions, foreign diplomatic and consular offices, if such insurance is specified by international agreements, or foreign legal entities or individuals, unless specified otherwise by international agreements;
• persons employed temporarily or occasionally in accordance with regulations, unless insured otherwise;
• persons employed temporarily or occasionally in accordance with regulations through youth employment offices, aged at least 26, or regardless of age if not attending school;
• employees made redundant and persons dismissed due to bankruptcy, liquidation or other cases of termination of employer’s business, while receiving financial compensation according to labor and employment regulations; however, their contributions are paid by the applicable employment office.

When an employee earns income per multiple bases (i.e. in addition to the salary the person receives as an employee, he/she also receives income as a self-employed person or as a contract worker), compulsory pension and disability insurance contributions are calculated and paid to the Fund per all bases and may not exceed the highest annual contributions rate.

Who pays contributions and what insurance base applies

For employed insurants, the contributions are paid by the employed person and the employer, at the same rate and to the same base.

The employer is responsible for calculation and payment of contributions, both those payable by the employee and those payable by the employer, for employees, selected designated and appointed persons, as well as temporarily and occasionally employed persons. The employer shall calculate and pay the contributions at the time of salary payment according to the regulations applicable at the time of salary payment. In the event that the employer fails to pay the salary for the previous month by day 30 of the current month, the employer shall calculate and pay the previous month contributions using the lowest monthly contributions base.

Pension and disability insurance contributions are paid based on paid employee salary with taxes and contributions (gross salary), and the salary must not be lower than the lowest or higher than the highest monthly contributions base.

If the paid salary is lower than the lowest monthly contributions base, the contributions are paid using the lowest monthly contributions base. The lowest monthly contributions base is 40% of average monthly salary in the Republic of Serbia paid during the previous quarter for which data has been declared by the authorized statistics office of Serbia, and its application starts on the first day of the month following the declaration.

If the paid salary is higher than the highest monthly contributions base, the contributions are paid using the highest monthly contributions base. The highest monthly contributions base is five times the average monthly salary paid per employee in the Republic of Serbia according to the most recent data declared by the authorized statistics office of Serbia, and its application starts on the first day of the month following the average monthly salary data declaration. The highest annual contributions base is five times the average annual salary in the Republic of Serbia, paid during the year for which contributions are calculated and paid, and it is declared by the Minister of financial affairs.

Overpayment return

An insurant who pays pension and disability insurance contributions independently is entitled to a refund of overpaid contributions, provided that the payment base exceeded the highest annual contributions base.

The decision on the right to be refunded the overpaid contributions is made by the Tax Administration at the request of the contributions payer.

Overpayment return for the previous year is done when the calendar year ends based on data entered in the register of the relevant Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, salary payer’s certificate on contributions base and paid contributions per deduction, and the relevant Tax Administration organization unit data on the base and amount of calculated and paid contributions per decision.
 
Insurance Termination

The insurance qualification is terminated on the date of termination of employment, self-employment or farming business, and/or contract work.

Insurance qualification termination is established based on the insurance withdrawal form (M Form).

Contributions payment termination during the year

During the current year, based on agreed salary, contributions payer may file a request for termination of contributions payment for future agreed salary in that year, when the base of contributions paid based on the agreed salary, with the contributions bases paid per other bases, has reached the amount of estimated highest annual contributions base declared by the Minister of financial affairs.

Request for contributions payment termination during the year is filed to the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund. The request must be accompanied by employer’s certificate and/or other payer’s certificate on paid salary and/or taxable income and paid contributions per deduction, and the relevant Tax Administration organizational unit certificate on the base and amount of paid contributions.

The decision on termination of contributions payment for future agreed salary in the current year is made by Pension and Disability Insurance Fund within 15 days from the date of request and accompanying documentation submission. This means that the decision is made based on the data contained in the employer’s certificate and/or other payer’s certificate, Tax Administration certificate, and specific register of paid contributions per agreed salary maintained by the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund.

The decision is delivered to the payer of agreed salary to terminate calculation and payment of contributions for future agreed salary in the current year.

Independent payment of contributions (Article 15)

You can acquire compulsory pension and disability insurance on your own, as allowed by Article 15 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance.

All individuals not insured otherwise (unemployed, students, house keepers, etc.) may acquire it in this way, provided they are older than 15 and have a place of residence in Serbia.

One of 13 offered insurance bases is selected, regardless of the level of education. The lowest base is 35% of average salary in Serbia in the last trimester, and the highest base is five times this average. Contributions rate for pension and disability insurance is 24%. The bases are adjusted every three months according to the salary trends. The contributions are paid no later than 15th day of month for the previous month (via payment slips in post-offices or banks). The selected base can be changed to a lower or higher one, but only to one of the 13 available bases (this change is possible only by submitting the appropriate request).

Other information:

• Contributions payment per Article 15 does not include health insurance
• Insurant qualification is gained on the date of application submission, no sooner than 30 days prior to application submission
• You need to find information about the new contributions amount on your own by visiting the appropriate Fund office or Fund website
• If you wish to stop contributions payment per article 15 you must file an insurance termination request
• Request for old age or disability pension acquisition is considered as a request for insurant qualification termination per Article 15
• Users of compensation and pensionable service with the National Employment Office may not be included in compulsory pension and disability insurance per Article 15
• Insurance period per Article 15 is entered into your work history by the Fund on your request after insurance is terminated and the contributions have been paid
• Individuals who had no insurance in an earlier period are not allowed to pay the pension and disability contributions for that period per Article 15
• Pension users may not be included in compulsory pension and disability insurance per Article 15
• Individuals included in compulsory insurance per Article 15 who have paid contributions cannot request to have the funds returned in case they realize some other pension and disability insurance rights
• A person cannot be insured per two bases. Insurance per Article 15 is automatically suspended in case of service contract or other contract which implies receiving agreed compensation. In that case, you can file a request for return of contributions you paid yourself. To re-enter insurance per Article 15, a new request must be submitted.
• It is certainly more effective to be included in compulsory insurance and to pay contributions independently, if one would start receiving pension sooner in that way, than to wait until meeting old age pension conditions.
• All information on rights and obligations regarding independent contributions payment can be obtained in the legal help department in Fund offices.