What is specific for company registration in Serbia for Russian citizens?

Procedure of registration of the company in Serbia with Russian ownership

When speaking about opening a firm in Serbia for Russian citizens, the procedure of registration is the same as for citizens of every other country.

Taxation for company in Serbia with Russian ownership

Social security payments

When speaking about taxation, it is important to know that Serbia and Russia have social security agreement signed, which means that if owner/director of Serbian firm is employed in Russia, he is not obligated to pay social contributions in Serbia.

Dividend tax

Russia and Serbia have signed avoidance of double taxation agreement.

In that agreement, dividend tax is defined for cases when Russian resident – individual or legal entity is owner of Serbian company.

Dividend tax rate is:

1) 5 percent of the gross amount of dividends if the end user is a company (excluding partnership) which directly has at least 25 percent of the capital of the dividends paying company and which has invested in it at least $ 100,000 or the corresponding amount in the national currency of the Contracting State;
2) 15 percent of the gross amount of dividends in all other cases.

Bank account opening for Serbian company when Russian individual or legal entity is owner of the company

Bank account opening is a little bit harder than usual and it is important to know banks market and apply in right bank, but there are no guarantees bank account opening application will be approved. In some banks there is no sense to apply, since some banks unofficially deny applications from citizens of certain country, or with certain business activities.

We admit that it is not impossible to open a bank account for a firm when owner is Russian, but banks are denying to open bank account more often, because of sanctions between EU and Russia.

When the firm is exporting something from Serbia to Russia, or importing from Russia to Serbia, it should not be impossible to open bank account for the company. On example, we opened a firm for one Russian citizen and opened bank account in January 2021, with the main activity – import of certain goods to Serbia and selling in Serbian market (this text is written in February 2021).

In cases when reexport is main activity, banks are more likely to deny bank account opening.

Our firm helps clients in bank account opening procedures and has a big expirience with bank account opening for companies with Russian ownership in Serbia.