The Impact of the Tax System on Serbia's Competitiveness

Abstract

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an effective strategy for exploiting a country’s competitive advantages. This paper aims to assess the importance of certain factors of the tax system for the activity of foreign investors in Serbia. In particular, it aims to determine how the national tax structure affects Serbia’s ability to improve its competitiveness in attracting FDI. The research was conducted in the second quarter of 2023 and included an online survey of 88 foreign companies that had invested in Serbia between 2001 and 2019. The study used the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the independent samples t-test. Four factors were analysed, namely the tax rate and the corporate tax base, as well as the tax rate and the personal income tax base. The results show that the corporate tax rate is the most important factor influencing the decision of foreign investors to invest in Serbia