How much does liquidating a company cost
Costs of voluntary DOO liquidation - APR fees, publication, and attorney's fee.
What goes into the total cost
The total cost of a DOO's voluntary liquidation consists of three parts that are paid separately, to different recipients. The first is the fees payable to APR (the Business Registers Agency) - for registering the decision to initiate liquidation and publishing the notice to creditors, for registering changes during the procedure (above all the opening and closing liquidation balance sheet and report), and for the application for deletion of the company from the register itself. These fees are fixed and prescribed by the fee schedule adopted by APR's governing board; the latest change to the fees applies from 1 January 2026, so it is worth checking the currently applicable amount before filing.
The second part is accounting services - liquidation balance sheets and reports are prepared according to accounting-profession rules, as a rule by an accountant or accounting firm, not by an attorney. This item depends most on the volume of the company's books and is as a rule agreed separately.
The third part is the attorney's fee for conducting the procedure - drafting the decision and other documents, communicating with APR, verifying and recording filed claims, and, if they arise, representation in any disputes with creditors. In practice, this fee is most often agreed as a lump sum for the entire procedure, and its amount primarily depends on the number of creditors and on whether any of them disputes their claim.
Example calculation
For illustration, the table below shows the costs for a typically simple case: a DOO with a single member, no employees, and no dispute with creditors at the time liquidation is initiated. In such a case, the administrative part of the cost (APR's fees) is at its lowest possible, and the largest part of the total amount is made up of the accounting services and the attorney's fee, whose amounts depend on the specific agreement. When there is a larger number of creditors or a claim is disputed, the total cost rises - above all because of the additional time the liquidation administrator and attorney spend verifying claims, and, in the event of a dispute, also because of the court costs of that proceeding, which is conducted separately from the registration procedure before APR.
Sources
- APR: fees for companies (change of data, registration of documents, deletion)
- APR: instructions on liquidation and deletion of a company
- Decision on fees for registration and other services provided by the Serbian Business Registers Agency (Official Gazette RS No. 95/2025), Arts. 3, 4 and 6 (paragraf.rs)
- Tariff on Attorneys' Fees and Costs, tabular overview (point value RSD 50 from 5 July 2025)
What it costs
| Item | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Registration of the decision to initiate liquidation and publication of the notice to creditors | RSD 4,000 (fee for registering a change of data, applied from 1 January 2026) | The decision on fees for registration and other services provided by APR (the Serbian Business Registers Agency) |
| Registration of changes during the procedure (opening and closing balance sheet/report) | Around RSD 4,000 per registration of a change (the general fee for registering a change of data with APR, applicable from 1 January 2026) | APR's fee schedule ('Official Gazette of RS', No. 95/2025) |
| Application for deletion of the company from the register | RSD 4,000 (fee for deleting a business entity, applied from 1 January 2026) | APR's fee schedule |
| Accounting services (preparation of liquidation balance sheets and reports) | Depends on the volume of the company's books; ask the engaged accounting firm for a quote | Agreement with an accounting firm, outside APR's fees |
| Attorney's fee for conducting the liquidation procedure | Most often agreed as a lump sum; roughly from around RSD 30,000 upward for a simple case (a single member, no disputed claims), depending on the number of creditors and any disputes. Under the Attorneys' Tariff, it is billed per individual action, by multiplying the number of points by the point value (RSD 50 as of July 2025) | The Tariff on Rewards and Reimbursement of Costs for Attorney's Work (Serbian Bar Association) and/or a separate lump-sum fee agreement |
| Court costs in the event of a dispute over a disputed claim | Depends on the value of the dispute and the outcome of the proceedings; not part of the regular course of liquidation | The Civil Procedure Act and the Tariff on Rewards for Attorney's Work (conditional, only if a dispute arises) |
Worked example
Example: a DOO with a single member, no employees, which had settled all its obligations to suppliers before initiating liquidation and has no disputed claims. APR costs: registration of the initiation of liquidation RSD 4,000 + registration of the opening and closing balance sheet/report, 2 x RSD 4,000 = RSD 8,000 + application for deletion RSD 4,000 → APR total RSD 16,000. Accounting services for preparing two liquidation balance sheets, indicatively RSD 20,000-40,000 depending on the firm. Attorney's fee for conducting the entire procedure, agreed as a lump sum, indicatively RSD 40,000-60,000 for a case this simple. Total indicatively around RSD 75,000-120,000, excluding VAT where applicable. If a creditor with a disputed claim requiring litigation appears, costs increase by the court fees and the additional attorney's work on that dispute, outside this calculation.
FAQ
Is this calculation a fixed price?
No. The amounts of APR's fees change (the latest change applies from 1 January 2026), and the accounting and attorney's fees depend on the agreement with the specific provider and on the complexity of the case - the number of creditors, the existence of disputed claims, and the volume of the company's books.
Can liquidation be cheaper if the company has no creditors at all?
The administrative part of the cost (APR's fees) stays roughly the same regardless of the number of creditors, since it is paid per filing, not per creditor. What decreases is the amount of work the liquidation administrator and attorney spend on verifying and settling claims, which as a rule is reflected in the amount of the lump-sum fee agreed.
Who bears the costs of liquidation - the company or the members personally?
The costs of the procedure are borne by the company from its own assets while liquidation is being carried out. Only the assets remaining after all obligations and costs have been settled are distributed to the members as the liquidation surplus.