"> Adler – Doing Business in Serbia

Doing Business in Serbia

Taxation
VAT
Standard Rate 20%
Lower Rate 10%
Corporate Profit Tax Uniform Rate 15%
Personal Income Tax Salaries 10%
Other Income 20%
Annual Income Tax 10 / 15%
Social Insurance Contributions Pension and Disability Insurance 12-14%
Health Insurance 5.15%
Unemployment Insurance 0.75%
Legal system
The legal system of Serbia is based on the principles of Roman law and continental civil law. Serbia has civil courts of general competence and specialist commercial courts. The courts of general competence have three levels:

Municipal Court
District Court
The Supreme Court

The commercial courts have two levels:

Commercial Court
Higher Commercial Court

Commercial contracts entered into Serbia where at least one contracting party is a foreign legal or natural person may incorporate arbitration clauses invoking the jurisdiction of the Foreign Trade Arbitration of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce or any other foreign institutional arbitration bodies, including ad hoc arbitrations. Serbia is a signatory of the New York Convention of 1958 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.

Parties to a contract are free to decide which law shall govern the contract.

Labor law
40 hour work week with 30 min. break per day included
12 holidays/ non-working days annually
Vacation – minimum 20 days annually
Fixed term contract – maximum 3 years
Probation – maximum 6 months
Minimum monthly salary – €180 (net amount)
Overtime and night shift rate – 26% on top of the normal hourly wage
National holiday rate – 110% on top of the normal hourly wage

Labor cost
Average Salary in Serbia across all Sectors:

NET Salary in € 377.84
Personal Income Tax 10.00% 42.97
Contributions 19.90% 104.55
GROSS Salary in € 525.36
Contributions 17.90% 94.04
TOTAL COST in € 619.4

Visiting Serbia

Whether for business reasons (meeting, audit) or pure tourism, Serbia is an interesting place to visit. Although prevailing image of Serbia globally is of a politically and historically controversial country, Serbia is a nice country with hospitable people, enjoyable nature and interesting mixture of cuisine. It is safe to travel, to speak freely; you can always and in every situation find people who can speak at least the English language.

Here you can check whether or not you require visa for traveling to Serbia.

Airport in the capitol Belgrade has good connectivity with a number of destinations worldwide and as well as with connecting hubs in Europe such as: Frankfurt (3 flights a day), Munich (3 flights a day), and Vienna (5 flights a day). To check the airfares try here. Alternative airports close by are found in Budapest and Timisoara.
However, due to fairly developed highway road network many business people tend to use personal car transport, as it takes only 2 hours to reach Serbia from Budapest, 4 hours from Vienna, 6 hours from Italy, 10 hours from Munich, etc.

Proper accommodation can be found anywhere. Check it out here.

Serbia is the only country outside of CIS countries, which enjoys a Free Trade relation with the Russian Federation and Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Russian market is one of the rare markets in Europe which shows steady growth and increase in demand, also during the financial turmoil in the rest of Europe. With an exemption of just a few products all goods which are “Made in Serbia” are eligible to be certified and exported to Russia without duty fees. Rule of origin is undemanding: more than 50% of EXW price of the product has to be generated in Serbia (including overhead costs, margin). Goods/ raw materials originating from any country member of the Customs union are considered domestic when determining and calculating the origin.