Tax incentives for keeping and attracting highly skilled workers: The case of Serbia

Abstract

The recent increased migration of workers has posed a brain drain problem on countries, which lose their citizens to more developed countries offering better working and living conditions. Lowering the tax burden on highly skilled individuals has been one of the most commonly used incentives by both developed and developing countries. The Government of the Republic of Serbia has proposed several tax incentives for providing a more beneficial tax treatment for highly skilled employees with the aim of keeping and attracting them back. The first part of this paper illustrates the problem of emigration, the effects of emigration of highly skilled workers, and the effects of taxation on migration decisions. In the second part, the problem of brain drain and its breadth in the Republic of Serbia is addressed, and a detailed elaboration of newly proposed tax incentives is provided. Furthermore, the author proposes an additional tax incentive.