Company Ownership Choices for Serbia

Serbia is becoming more and more interesting to investors from around the world. It’s a popular place for people who want to start businesses. Right in the middle of South East Europe, Serbia boasts a great location for business. As if it were not enough, the country has high living standards similar to other European countries. It’s a good place for those willing to do business on their terms. The government is actively encouraging foreigners to invest in Serbia. They offer special benefits like lower taxes and other perks to make investing here attractive.

Starting a company in Serbia comes with multiple benefits. Below, we’re going to talk about why owning a company in Serbia is a smart idea. We’ll look at the different business ownership structures and what they are used for.

Setting up your business in Serbia

Setting up a company in Serbia is easy. The country’s strong economy along with modern online banking services and a friendly attitude towards foreign investors work in synergy to make it simple to start a company in Serbia.

Registering a company and opening a business bank account with a bank in Serbia doesn’t require much time. You don’t have to be physically present in the country for that. Instead, you can issue a PoA to someone you trust so that the said person could act on your behalf. They can take care of all the paperwork with the Serbian Companies Registry.

How to structure your company in Serbia: a make-or-break decision

Choosing the right way to set up your company in Serbia is important, as it can determine if your business does well in the long run.

When you’re making this big decision, you should think about a lot of things. The latter include what your business does, how big it is, how many people work there, how many owners it has, and other important stuff. 

Business choices in Serbia: from a sole proprietorship to a public limited company

In Serbia, a sole proprietorship is the simplest way to own a business. This means you’re entirely in charge of everything related to your business, just like in many other countries. However, this choice has some limits on how much your business can grow and how flexible it can be. If you plan to start a small and specific business in Serbia where your work is really important, then choosing a sole proprietorship could be a good idea.

Moving up a level, we have partnerships in Serbia, which come in 2 forms: general partnerships and limited partnerships.

In the case of general partnerships, both natural and legal persons can be partners. Just like the name suggests, a partnership needs to have at least 2 members. None of the partners are required to be citizens of Serbia or have special legal permission to be a partner. There aren’t any specific rules about the smallest amount of money needed to start a partnership in Serbia. In a general partnership, all partners take full responsibility for what the above partnership does. If new partners want to join, everyone already involved has to agree.

Now, when we look at limited partnerships, the main difference is about who’s responsible for what. In this setup, there are one or more general partners with full liability and one or more limited partners who are only liable up to the amount of money they contributed. So, the general partner is like the manager and legal representative. Known as sleeping partners, the other ones don’t make any big decisions.

To form an LLC (or its Serbian analogue known as d.o.o. or private limited company), you will require a small group of members and a relatively moderate amount of share capital. This specific legal structure is well-suited for medium and small businesses. Interestingly, quite a few large businesses with an established manufacturing system and a workforce of over 1000 employees prefer to be incorporated as LLCs.

Depending on how big their share in the company is, the members manage the company’s profits and decide how to distribute them. This particular type of Serbian company can be established by one or more shareholders, who may be either individuals or legal entities. It doesn’t matter whether they are residents of Serbia or come from outside the country. The total number of company shareholders may not exceed 100. If there’s a need for more shareholders, the LLC has to be transformed into a public company.

An LLC in Serbia only issues registered shares, which cannot be sold or transferred without the agreement of the other members.

One or more Directors supervise the company’s activities. They do not necessarily have to be legal residents of Serbia. These Directors have complete authority and are fully liable for overseeing company operations.

If you have big plans for your business and want to make it even larger in Serbia, you may decide to form a public limited liability company there. In this case, the incorporation procedure is similar to the one for an LLC and the number of members is unlimited. Managed by the BoD, a public limited company in Serbia may issue shares that people can buy and sell freely. The exact number of directors is mentioned in the Articles of Association. With public limited liability companies, their directors don’t have to own any shares unless the company rules say so. Also, there aren’t any special rules about where these directors come from or where they shall live.

As we mentioned before, setting up a company in Serbia is pretty simple. Yet, assisted by International Wealth experts, you will pick one of the available company ownership types in Serbia and achieve your incorporation goals much quicker and with less hustle. We’re here for you whether you want to start a new company in Serbia or add a branch to your current one, even if it’s registered in a different country. Opening bank accounts with Serbian banks is a breeze for us, so don’t wait to benefit from this opportunity!