Yes, we know. Serbia is certainly not the classic offshore destination as people know it. Still, some view term offshore as something outside of your residing country, so your company located in Serbia might as well pass as offshore one for you. Also, if you are in search of the usual perks of the traditional offshore locations, don’t stop reading yet.

Yes, Serbia is not a tax haven and your company will have to settle its corporate income tax, as well as others. Yet, that doesn’t mean that setting up a company or buying a company in Serbia does not come with any benefits for that matter. Having an offshore company in Serbia can actually make sense and let us tell you why.

First, corporate income tax in Serbia is set at 15% which is quite below average figure for the world and Europe’s one, circling around 22%. Also, as far as avoidance of double taxation goes, Serbian authorities have invested significant energy in concluding contracts with as many countries as they could, making sure that if your company operates in both places you’ll pay your taxes only in one of those (list of the countries with which avoidance of double taxation exists is presented below). And it doesn’t stop here.

Regarding value added tax or VAT, Serbian company can even claim the return of it for goods or services acquired abroad, as far as we are talking about European country with which agreement was made (and a number of those countries is not small, check the list below). And continuing in the same manner, as a country, Serbia is capable of offering easily monetary accessible workforce, usually well educated, director of the company can represent company without being fully employed and without receiving salary allowing significant tax savings (usually used for small companies when owner and director are the same person), minimal foundation capital in case of limited companies is 1 EUR, and so on…

And then we could even touch the political aspect of things producing direct benefits for businesses here. Serbia has more than several conveniences for trading with the European Union, but also maintaining similar positive relations with Russia and China. Furthermore Serbia hasn’t introduced sanctions to countries like Russia and Venezuela, so trading with those is still an option for companies here. If all this sounds interesting to you, check our articles on Starting a company in Serbia or Serbian companies for sale if you are interested in buying the ready made company here.

For that matter, also feel free to contact us regarding this matter as well as to check our Website, our Homepage, Contact page, or anything you like. With our law office in Belgrade, law office in Novi Sad or our other law offices we are at your disposal.

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Countries with which Serbia has contracts for avoiding double taxation: Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Denmark, DNR Korea, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Netherlands, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Qatar, China, Cyprus, The Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

Note that list above might not be complete at the time of your reading.

Countries in which Serbia has option of VAT refund: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Bulgaria.

Note that list above might not be complete at the time of your reading.