Type of activity

Think about the nature of your business. Some activities are better adapted to some legal forms, meaning that some activities cannot choose a specific legal form for the company to register.

For example, artisan shops are mostly registered as lump-sum entrepreneurs. On the other hand, retail shops are legally unable to register as lump-sum entrepreneurs and must keep books. That is why it is crucial to determine the activity code before the first step.

Scope of business

An entrepreneur or LLC may be suitable if you are planning a small or medium-sized business. For larger businesses that require a significant amount of capital, the solution may be found in a joint stock company (it is vital to be well-informed).

Number of founders

A partnership or limited partnership may be suitable for a larger number of partners. When it comes to a single-founder business, an entrepreneur or an LLC are often the common choices.

Liability and Risk

If you want to limit your liability when opening a company, an LLC or a joint stock company are suitable choices because they imply liability only for the share invested in the company during its establishment.

Administrative requirements

Consider how much time and resources you can devote to administration. Entrepreneurs have more straightforward administrative requirements than LLCs or JSCs, which require bookkeeping and annual financial statements.

Economic profitability of the business model

Whether you are entering the entrepreneurial waters for the first time or already have many years of entrepreneurial experience, your future company’s economic and financial analysis is always the starting point. It should be done before the actual establishment of the company.

Preparing a business plan and analyzing future operations can often sound like a “worn-out phrase.” Still, regardless, they are of great importance for the company’s survival through the following operations.

Constituent parts of the business plan and analysis of your future business include the items listed below:

• revenue and market analysis
• analysis of production potential
• analysis of the required workforce
• cost breakdown analysis
• analysis of inventory and other current assets
• analysis of suppliers and other current sources of financing
• investment and development potential
• plan of necessary marketing activities

Expansion and growth:

If you plan to expand quickly or are looking for investors, an LLC or a joint stock company may be a better choice because of their flexibility in attracting capital.

How much time do I need to form a company in Serbia?

The process of opening a company technically lasts five working days from the date the application is fully submitted to the government of Serbia.

However, the process can take longer if the future LLC owners are non-residents and we need to get a proper set of documents from the origin country.

Opening (founding) an LLC: What steps are necessary to open an LLC company in Serbia?

If, during the analysis of your future business, it turns out that the establishment of an LLC is an ideal option for your future business, then you need to know what steps await you as part of the preparatory work before the process of opening or establishing an LLC:

• Qualified electronic certificate (digital signature) – hand signature in digital format. It is defined by the law on electronic signature. It represents a collection of data in one place in digital format and is therefore connected and logically integrated with other digital information.

The electronic certificate is used:

– for identifying the person who uses it to sign a document

– to protect data during transmission and their correctness

– when escaping from the responsibility that the document was signed

How can I get a certificate, and who issues it? 

The electronic certificate is issued exclusively by one of the certified bodies (Post, Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Ministry of Interior, Halcom, E-smart System).

• Valid identity card – opening a company in Serbia is only possible with an identity card that was issued on the territory of the Republic of Serbia and has not expired.
• A created company name – is one of the most essential items the founder should know when opening a company.

The new company’s name is checked during the founding process so that it does not strongly coincide with the names of already established companies. 

• Address (head office) of the company where the company will be registered – According to the law, the head office must be located on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. In addition, you can register the space you have the right to use as a seat. This means that you must have the right of ownership, a lease contract, or the right to use the space free of charge to register it as your business headquarters.
• Valid email and phone number – contact information through which the tax administration will be able to contact you, if necessary, as well as information that will be visible on the Business Registers Agency (optional)
• Degree and employment status of the founder

– The level of education is submitted when the company is established, and it is important to specify it, for example. 6.2

– Completed specialist applied studies

– The status of the founder shows whether or not the founder establishes an employment relationship with another company. 

What do I need technically to establish a company?

 This is the biggest concern of founders who have not encountered this process.

For this reason, we have included specific steps for opening a company in the following text.

Fill out the form and let’s incorporate your business.

The technical part of opening a company is over; I’ve registered at the Business Registers Agency, so what’s next?

After the company’s establishment is completed, you need to follow a few more steps to be fully prepared to start your business.

Opening a bank account (commercial bank account)

The final step to start a business. To start a business, you need to have an account with a commercial bank. The very process of entering into a contract with a commercial bank must be done by the director personally, that is, by the person authorised for representation you specified in the forms when opening the LLC.

Tax Administration and Local Public Revenue Administration 

After opening a current account in the selected bank, you must submit the complete documentation to your accounting agency, which will then take over the application process to the Tax Administration. It is important to note that the first obligation of the company is to submit the income tax return to the Tax Administration electronically through the ePorezi service within 15 days from the date of registration (the date of the adoption of the decision on registration issued by the Business Registers Agency) (for LLC, the process is different for lump-sum agencies).

Take care not to exceed the specified deadline because the consequences of this failure are significant: in addition to the fine, your company’s TIN may be revoked, which prevents you from carrying out your activity until the consequences are eliminated, i.e., the TIN is returned.

Stamp making (optional)

Although Article 25, paragraph 3 of the Law on Companies stipulates that you do not need a stamp, general practice has shown that it is better to have one, primarily due to various inconsistencies in the Law and some officials who can take a lot of time with their internal procedures, which require a seal.

Verification of beneficial owners – mandatory for LLC 

What exactly is a beneficial owner?  

A beneficial owner is always a natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity or other entity under foreign law.

Exceptionally, if it is not possible to identify the natural person as prescribed, the beneficial owner is a natural person who is registered for representation, that is, a person who is registered as a member of that entity’s body.

As the data are published simultaneously with the recording, the data on the beneficial owner of the registered entity produce legal effects against third parties on the day following the publication of such data in the Central Register of Beneficial Owners.

Who must register the beneficial owners, and in what period?

• Newly established business entities must register the beneficial owner within 15 days from the registration date. From October 1, 2023, it is possible to submit the electronic registration application for the establishment of a company in a unified manner, which allows the registration of the beneficial owner to be carried out simultaneously.
•  If the founder does not use this option, the company’s legal representative must register the beneficial owner in the Central Registry within 15 days of registration in the Register of Business Entities.
•  Also, registered business entities are obliged to register the beneficial owner no later than 15 days from the day of the change in the ownership structure or members of the entity’s bodies.

Establishing an entrepreneurial business has many similarities with opening an LLC, but a few differences exist. If you plan to register as an entrepreneur, follow the steps listed below:

Step 1: Registration of an entrepreneurial business with the Business Registers Agency 

When you decide to start a new business and i establish or open an entrepreneurial agency,  the first step is to register it with the Business Registers Agency. 

UPDATE: As with opening an LLC, this step has been entirely electronic for establishing an entrepreneurial business and can no longer be done on paper since the middle of 2023. If you want to set up a company independently, you need an adequate qualified signature, a registered profile on the Business Registers Agency, adequate drivers, ID card readers, an Adobe package, and technical knowledge.

Step 1a: filling out the registration application for the establishment of an entrepreneurial business

You can download the registration application for establishing an entrepreneurial business or lump-sum agency from the Business Registers Agency, website and fill it out electronically. Then, you can print out the completed registration application and attach it to the necessary documentation.

Please note that when filling out the registration application, you must decide whether you will be an entrepreneur who keeps the books (personal income) or a lump-sum entrepreneur. This step will determine your future tax status.

UPDATE: As of 2023, this step is entirely electronic and can no longer be completed on paper. The registration application for opening a company is now completed directly on the Business Registers Agency portal.

Step 2: Submission of application and Registrar’s decision on application

The application is submitted only after you have obtained all the necessary documentation for opening an entrepreneurial business or a lump-sum agency. All you have to do is apply to the Business Registers Agency, and unlike the process of establishing an LLC, you do not need a Memorandum of Association.

UPDATE: As of 2023, this step is entirely electronic and can no longer be done in paper form.

Step 2a: Complaint against the Registrar’s decision

If you are not satisfied with the Registrar’s decision, you can submit a complaint that must contain the number and date of the decision contested by the complaint, reasons for the contestation, identification data about the complainant and the signature of the complainant. The complaint is submitted to the minister responsible for the position of companies and other business forms through the Business Registers Agency within 30 days from the decision’s publication date.

Step 3: Obtaining a decision on the opening (establishment) of an entrepreneur or a lump-sum agency

When the Business Registers Agency makes a favorable decision on your application, it will issue a Decision approving the opening of an entrepreneur or a lump-sum agency. It will deliver that Decision to you as specified in the Registration Application. If you indicated that you want to take the Registrar’s decisions personally, go to the Business Registers Agency and take it.

Step 3a: Obtaining an Extract from the Register of Business Entities

You may need an extract from the Business Registers Agency on registering an entrepreneur or a lump-sum agency during business. Sometimes, when issuing the extract, proving that you are operating as a limited liability company is necessary.

Step 4: Opening a business bank account

After the mentioned processes, and when establishing an LLC, it is necessary to open a current account in the bank. Opening an account is the same as establishing an LLC.

Step 5: Tax Administration and Local Public Revenue Administration

As in step 4, after you have completed the registration application and opened a current account, the next step is to take all the documentation to the accounting agency, which will then make the application to the tax and local administration for you.

In the last few years, as the digital community has grown and the number of remote jobs has grown significantly, the virtual office concept has become very interesting to many future entrepreneurs considering opening a company.

A virtual office only helps businesses use a physical address and office services without incurring additional costs for utilities, space rental and administrative staff. Employees can work from any location, and the company has a mailing address, answering machines, meeting rooms and video conferencing capabilities.

For example, you can manage a business from a rural area and use a virtual office in one of the major cities.

The advantages of renting and using a virtual office are numerous. Among the most important are creating a professional image and significant savings.

This can be an excellent convenience for small business owners and startups that have just established a company because it avoids the high costs of renting office space.

The essential process of opening a company does not differ, and it does not matter whether you start a company in Belgrade, Novi Sad or Niš.

The only operational difference is that data additions or changes must be physically submitted to the local Business Registers Agency, and therefore, the company opening agency should be also present locally.

For this reason, IDEAL Računovodstvo also has local offices in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Niš so that the processes of changes/additions can be carried out smoothly.

Establishing a company requires knowledge of specific processes, rules, and time and paying government taxes

The sum lump cost of forming a company in Serbia could be in the range of 400 – 1500 EUR depending on the final structure.

If, after reading the text above, you think that this process is something you would instead leave to someone else, then we invite you to submit a request for opening a company by clicking on the button below, sorted by type of legal entity:

What about accounting and bookkeeping after company formation?

Since the company’s opening has been completed, to whom should I entrust my business and the “intimacy” of my company?

Perhaps this question should be asked before the establishment so we could go through all the steps from establishment to bookkeeping with a potential partner.

But how do I know who in the sea of ​​accountants will be the best partner for me and my business?

If you are asking yourself these questions, I suggest we schedule a meeting and get to know each other because I believe this is the only way you will get answers.

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Fill out the form and let’s start preparing a plan for you.