What are the main benefits of Association registration in Serbia? This is a great opportunity to protect your assets and ensure a high level of confidentiality for beneficial owners. If this is what you need, register an Association remotely and we will immediately open a bank account for it. Read on to see the peculiarities of a Serbian Association.
- Registration of an Association in Serbia: What It Is Like
- Registration of an Association in Serbia: How Is It Organized?
- Registration of an Association in Serbia: Documents Required
- Registration of an Association in Serbia: Costs of Association Registration
- Registration of an Association in Serbia: Procedure
Registration of an Association in Serbia: What It Is Like
An Association in Serbia is a special form of relationship that acquires the status of a legal entity after it is entered in the Serbian register. The record in the register is voluntary.
Any Association is established freely and is a voluntary and non-profit organization. The Association brings together local or foreign natural and legal persons that share common goals and objectives. These objectives should not be prohibited by the Serbian Constitution.
An Association in Serbia has the right to associate with other Associations, both in Serbia and abroad. Such Associations are called federations.
Any Association can create a separate part (club, branch, group, department) in any country, but this part will not be considered a separate legal entity.
Beneficial owners can obtain a high degree of anonymity thanks to the Association’s structure.
The most important characteristic of the Association is the unique establishment procedure and legal relations with the founders who are not considered beneficial owners by local authorities and banks. For banks, the beneficial owner is the person (Association President) who actually and legally manages the Association. The President may be a local or foreign citizen (with a Serbian residence permit).
Founders of the Association can be changed at any time: you can add or delete persons from the list of founders or replace them if necessary. This can be done in a very simple and fast way, like in any joint-stock company, and it allows for unlimited changes in structure, providing unprecedented flexibility for management and business.
The Association is fully supported by local banks in accordance with local and international laws governing the banking sector. The Association has every right to use all banking services. Banks treat the manager as a beneficial owner without any requests for information and KYC of founders. The status of an Association is equal to that of any classic local company.
The founders are fully protected against any legal risk, and commercial risk is limited to the activities of the elected Managing Director. The founder may closely monitor the President’s activities and operations and replace him at any time, just like any other commercial company.
The Association may own other companies and legal entities, making it an ideal substitute for holding companies from Switzerland and some other leading jurisdictions with full tax advantage. The Association may own a foundation that provides a new level of protection to the founders.
Registration of an Association in Serbia: How is it Organized?
A minimum of 3 founders are required to register an Association. One of them must be a temporary or permanent resident of Serbia. Legally capable natural persons and legal entities from Serbia and other countries can become founders.
Residence permit and tax residency in Serbia through investments in real estate.
If you want to establish an Association, adopt a Constituent Act and the Articles of Association, and then select a person to represent the Association at the Foundation Meeting.
The Articles of Association specify the aims of the Association.
The Association has two main governing bodies: the Association Assembly and the Association President.
The Assembly is the supreme authority that consists of all the Association members.
The Association President is one or more natural persons – residents of Serbia who are authorized to represent the Association.
The Association operates at the expense of membership fees, donations, gifts in cash and in kind, interest on deposits, dividends, rents, and any other sources of income that are permitted by law.
Those individuals and legal entities that provide contributions and gifts may be exempted from part of the tax obligations in accordance with the law.
The Association pays 2.5% gift tax upon receipt of funds.
The Association is allowed to conduct business activities in Serbia, but it pays 15% income tax. Business activities can be conducted if the following conditions are met:
- they are related to the objectives of the Association set out in the Articles of Association
- they are directly provided for by the Articles of Association
- the activities are carried out to the extent necessary to achieve the goals, but no more than that
At the same time, it is prohibited to distribute the profits received between the founders, members of the Association and management bodies, employees, etc. It is also prohibited to transfer assets to founders, members, directors, employees, and other related persons.
The Association needs to keep accounting records as a local company. At the same time, it bears responsibility for its obligations with all assets.
Important: The assets of the Association can only be used for the purposes specified in the Articles of Association.
Registration of an Association in Serbia: Documents Required
Documents required to register an Association in Serbia:
- Constituent Act
- original Articles of Association
- Minutes of Constituent Assembly
- document confirming the election of the Association President
- personal documents of the person elected Association President (passport of a Serbian citizen or passport of a foreign citizen and a residence permit)
- application for registration (we will help you to compile it)
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on which jurisdiction is best for your business, preferred tax regime, company structure.
Registration of an Association in Serbia: Costs of Association Registration
The costs of Association registration (including opening an account): from 3200 EUR (when you register the Association with a director’s personal visit to Serbia).
Major expenses include:
- execution of documents
- registration of an Association in Serbia
- state fees
- opening of the company’s bank account
Additional costs:
- translation of documents into Serbian – 20 euros per page
- accounting services and lease of a legal address – from 250 euros per month
- power of attorney for remote opening of the Association and submission of documents to open the company’s account – EUR 1,000 (the total cost of the service starts from 3200 EUR)
Registration of an Association in Serbia: Procedure
Please contact us at info@offshore-pro.info and say that you want to register an Association in Serbia
Pay for the Association registration service. The cost is 3200 EUR. Payment is accepted by bank transfer, card, Bitcoin, WebMoney, Western Union and MoneyGram.
Provide the necessary documents.
We will help you register the Association.
You will transfer/donate the assets to the Association and it will start its activities.
The Association in Serbia can serve as a field for international relations thanks to its neutral status and a developed system of international economic agreements (duty-free trade with the United States and the EU, friendly relations with China). Plus, the costs of running daily operations (utility bills, local employees’ salaries) are lower than in Europe and many other countries.
If you have any additional questions, do not hesitate to contact us at the above e-mail.
