How much does it cost to open a company in Serbia
Cost of opening a company in Serbia in 2026: APR fees for a DOO and a sole trader, founding act, capital, e-signature, accountant and running costs.
How much it costs to open a company: three groups of costs
The answer to how much it costs to open a company (in Serbian: "koliko košta otvaranje firme") depends on what you count. Registration itself is cheap. What comes after it costs more.
The first group is state fees. They are prescribed by the Decision on fees adopted by APR's Management Board. APR is the Serbian Business Registers Agency. The new decision applies from 1 January 2026 and raised the fee for founding a company to RSD 8,000 and for a sole trader to RSD 2,500. Registering a change of data now costs RSD 4,000 for a company and RSD 1,400 for a sole trader, which is worth bearing in mind because mistakes in the application are corrected through a change registration.
The second group is services you are not obliged to pay for but which often make sense: drafting the founding act, handling the registration, advice on the form and tax regime. Prices are freely agreed. With one founder and a standard act this item can be zero. With several founders, the founding agreement is where the relationships that later most often lead to disputes are regulated.
The third group is running costs from the first month. They do not depend on whether the business has income.
Costs after founding that need planning
Bookkeeping. A DOO must keep double-entry books and file annual financial statements with APR. A sole trader who keeps books has similar duties, while a flat-rate trader keeps only a turnover ledger. Agency prices vary by city and workload (ask several agencies for a quote).
Taxes and contributions. A flat-rate trader pays the monthly amount in the Tax Administration's decision, whether or not there was income that month. In a DOO, a founder who is also the director must have a basis of insurance. If not insured on another basis, contributions are paid on at least the lowest monthly base. The company's profit is taxed at 15%, and a dividend paid to a natural person at a further 15%.
Bank. Maintaining a business account and payment fees are charged under the bank's tariff. Banks often have packages for newly founded businesses.
Other. A fiscal device or application if you sell to consumers, the local municipal signage tax for those not exempt (check your municipality's decision), and the environmental protection fee.
Sole trader or DOO: comparing the start-up cost
At registration the difference is small: RSD 2,500 for a sole trader against RSD 8,000 for a DOO. That difference should not decide the form.
The real difference lies in the first year. A flat-rate sole trader knows the monthly amount in advance, has no duty to file financial statements and can keep the turnover ledger personally. A DOO has, from day one, an accountant, annual financial statements, beneficial owner records and the cost of the director's insurance. In return, a DOO member is not liable with personal assets for the company's obligations, and a share in the company can be sold or transferred, which is not possible in the same way with a sole-trader business.
The exit cost should also be counted. A sole trader is deleted from the register by one application. A DOO is wound up through liquidation, with a notice to creditors, liquidation balance sheets and several filings with APR. A sole trader who outgrows the form can continue the business as a DOO without closing it (Art. 92 of the Companies Act): the founding of the company (RSD 8,000) and the deletion of the sole trader (RSD 1,400) are registered at the same time.
Where people most often overpay in practice
The first mistake is choosing the form without doing the sums. A flat-rate trader who exceeds the limit after a few months, or fails the independence test, pays more than if they had kept books or founded a DOO from the start. Conversely, a DOO founded for a small side income carries fixed costs that the income does not cover.
The second mistake is corrections. A wrong activity code, address or representative details are corrected by registering a change, which is charged separately.
The third mistake is missing deadlines after founding. Fines are prescribed for failing to record the beneficial owner and for failing to file tax returns, and they exceed the cost of founding many times over.
The amounts on this page are for information and reflect the position in September 2026. Check the current fee on the APR website before paying.
Sources
- APR: fees for registering companies (founding, changes, deletion, registration of documents)
- APR: fees for registering sole traders
- Decision on fees for registration and other services provided by the Serbian Business Registers Agency (Odluka o naknadama, Official Gazette RS No. 95/2025), Arts. 2, 4 and 8 (paragraf.rs)
- Companies Act (Zakon o privrednim društvima), Arts. 25, 92 and 145
- Personal Income Tax Law (Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana), Arts. 40 and 41
- Regulation on flat-rate taxation of self-employment income (Uredba o bližim uslovima, kriterijumima i elementima za paušalno oporezivanje, Official Gazette RS Nos. 94/2019 ... 115/2025), Art. 5 (paragraf.rs)
- Tax Administration: flat-rate tax and contributions calculator
- Tariff on Attorneys' Fees and Costs, tabular overview (point value RSD 50 from 5 July 2025)
What it costs
| Item | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| APR fee for registering the founding of a DOO | RSD 8,000 | Decision on fees for registration and other services provided by APR ('Sl. glasnik RS', no. 95/2025), applied from 1 January 2026. |
| Registration and publication of the DOO founding act | Included in the RSD 8,000 founding fee; a separate RSD 4,000 fee applies only when a founding act is registered on its own, outside founding | APR Decision on fees ('Sl. glasnik RS', no. 95/2025), Art. 2 |
| APR fee for registering a sole trader (preduzetnik) | RSD 2,500, for both a paper and an electronic application | APR Decision on fees ('Sl. glasnik RS', no. 95/2025) |
| Name reservation (optional) | RSD 2,000 | APR Decision on fees ('Sl. glasnik RS', no. 95/2025), Art. 4 item 3 |
| DOO share capital | At least RSD 100; the money stays in the company's account and is not a cost in the true sense | Companies Act (Zakon o privrednim društvima) (Art. 145) |
| Qualified electronic signature | Free for the certificate on the ID card and the cloud signature through the eID portal; commercial certificates per the issuer's price list | Law on Electronic Document, Electronic Identification and Trust Services |
| Notarial certification of signatures on the founding act (paper founding act only) | Per the Notary Tariff, per signature and copy; this cost does not arise with e-registration | Notary Tariff (Javnobeležnička tarifa) |
| Drafting the founding act and handling registration (lawyer or agency) | Freely agreed, most often as a flat fee. Under the Attorney Tariff the calculation goes by individual actions, multiplying points by the point value (RSD 50 from July 2025). Ask for a specific quote | Tariff on Attorneys' Fees and Costs (AKS) or a contract with an agency |
| Company stamp | Not mandatory; anyone who wants one pays the stamp maker's price | Art. 25 para. 3 of the Companies Act |
Worked example
Example 1: a single-member DOO, the founder files the e-registration personally with a free cloud signature and a standard act from the APR website. Founding fee RSD 8,000, which also covers registration of the founding act, + share capital RSD 100, which stays in the company's account. Total outlay to the state is RSD 8,000. Example 2: a flat-rate sole trader: RSD 2,500, the same for a paper and an electronic application. Example 3: a DOO with two founders who engage a lawyer to draft a founding agreement with rules on decision-making and a member's exit. The APR fees are the same as in example 1, plus the agreed fee, which depends on the complexity of the agreement and cannot be stated in advance as a fixed amount.
FAQ
How much does it cost to open a company if I do everything myself?
For a DOO, RSD 8,000 in APR fees plus share capital of at least RSD 100. For a sole trader RSD 2,500. The condition is that you have a qualified electronic signature, which can be obtained free of charge.
Which is more expensive to maintain: a DOO or a sole trader?
As a rule a DOO. Double-entry bookkeeping costs more than servicing a flat-rate trader, financial statements are mandatory, and the director must have a basis of insurance, which means monthly contributions. A flat-rate trader pays the amount in the Tax Administration's decision and has minimal bookkeeping costs.
What is the monthly tax for a flat-rate sole trader?
There is no single amount. The Tax Administration sets the tax base by decision, according to the activity code, the municipality of the registered office, the taxpayer's years in business and other criteria; in the year of registration the base is multiplied by a coefficient of 0.5. An indicative amount for your activity and municipality is given by the flat-rate tax calculator on the Tax Administration portal.
Are there subsidies for opening a company?
The National Employment Service issues public calls for self-employment subsidies for unemployed persons, and some local governments and the Development Fund have programmes for start-ups. Conditions and amounts change every year (check the current public call). Important: the NES subsidy application is as a rule filed before registration.
How much does closing a company cost if the business fails?
A sole trader is deleted by a simple application. A DOO goes through liquidation, which lasts at least about 120 days and costs considerably more than founding. The exit cost is therefore part of the calculation when choosing the form. Details are on the page about the cost of liquidating a company.