The ‘old’ European countries are known for their high living standards, efficient social security systems, and financial stability. They are also known for their conservatism, tough corporate regulations, and high taxes. Serbia is a young independent state located in the Balkans, the very heart of the European continent. What makes Serbia truly unique is that there you can find many positive characteristics that you can find in other European states while Serbia is free from many drawbacks that some Western European countries have.

Since leaving Yugoslavia and separating from Montenegro, Serbia has been progressing at an amazingly high speed. The country’s economy is steadily growing and the living standards are constantly improving. It is a modern independent state offering all sorts of amenities and infrastructural objects that a ‘civilized’ person can think of. It concerns all spheres of life including administration, education, healthcare, housing, transportation, banking services, industrial development, tourist facilities, and so on and so forth.

At the same time, Serbia is not an EU member state so far. Does this fact put it at a disadvantage? In some respects, it does but in some other respects, lack of EU membership gives Serbia a freer hand, so to say, at laying down the rules for corporations domiciled in the jurisdiction. Companies registered in the countries to the West of Serbia have to follow strict regulations common for all the EU member states but companies registered in Serbia don’t. Besides, companies are taxed at high rates in Western Europe. In Serbia, companies are also taxed but the tax rates are significantly more benign than the ones that you will find in most other European states.

If you open a company in Serbia, you will find that doing business from the location can be much more beneficial than doing business from one of the EU countries. Less administrative pressure, a smaller fiscal burden, more freedom, and better opportunities for engaging in international business: Serbia compares favorably against most of its neighboring countries and countries beyond their borders.

What particular advantages does Serbia offer to foreign entrepreneurs registering business companies there? We’ve already mentioned one advantage above: taxes are comparatively low in Serbia. They are not the lowest taxes in the world but most other European countries apply higher tax rates anyway. The corporate tax rate, for instance, is 15% in Serbia. You can find a European jurisdiction that charges an even smaller corporate tax (such as Gibraltar, for example) but most other countries on the continent will charge more than 15% on the corporate income. The personal income tax is progressive and it can be as high as 15% but it cannot be any higher and it can be as low as 0% if your personal income is very small.

Another important advantage that Serbia has is the central geographical location of the country. It serves as a gateway between the East and the West. With a company domiciled in Serbia, you can trade with partners in both parts of Eurasia.

As far as foreign trade is concerned, no other country in the world offers better conditions to companies engaged in international trade than Serbia does. The country has free trade agreements with the following huge markets: the EU, the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland), the USA, China, and the EAEU (Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan). Besides, preferential trade agreements with Japan and Turkey are also in place. If you calculate the number of people living in the abovementioned parts of the world, you will see that you can engage in free trade from Serbia with a market populated by nearly 1.5 billion people! Where else could you find similar free trade opportunities?

The banking sector is one of the pillars of the Serbian economy. Banks operating in the country generate a large portion of the overall national income. If you register a business company in Serbia, you will have a choice of around 30 banks where you can set up a corporate account. We must note that rather few of the banks are local ones. Large banking corporations from Italy, China, Turkey, the UAE and other countries have branches in Serbia. Thus, you can choose the bank that suits your purposes best of all depending on where your international trade partners are located.

The opportunity to bank in Serbia should be of interest to any business company domiciled outside Europe. Yes, you can open a non-resident European bank account in Serbia too even though we have to note that setting up a non-resident bank account has become a rather challenging task. Understandably, banks in Serbia put more trust in local residents rather than non-residents. For this reason, we highly recommend that you should consider registering a company in Serbia to make acquiring banking services in the country an easier task.

In particular, you may want to think about the following interesting opportunity. It is possible to register a Serbian branch or a subsidiary of your company domiciled elsewhere. What makes this opportunity especially inviting is the fact that you parent company can be registered almost anywhere in the world, even in an offshore jurisdiction. Suppose that you have a company registered in Nevis or Belize, for example. Setting up a bank account for your offshore company in a European country would be a highly intricate undertaking. However, you could register a Serbian branch of your Nevis-based company and that would make you eligible for applying for banking services in Serbia. That is to say, your offshore company could open a European bank account and the task would not be overly complicated.

Whether you would like to register a company in Serbia or open a bank account there (or both), you don’t have to visit the country as both tasks can be completed remotely. You would only have to issue a limited Power of Attorney in the name of a Serbia lawyer. On the other hand, nature is stunning in Serbia and the capital city of Belgrade is among the most beautiful European cities. You should really enjoy spending a few days in Serbia, a wonderful country in the Balkans.