Introduction - New Member from Serbia

[bizniz]

Good morning,

I just wanted to say hi as a new member. I have found lots of useful info on this forum forum over many years but never got around to registering. Now I have a little more time because it is holidays, and there are a couple of posts I wanted to comment on, so I decided to join in the action.

I am an expat based in Serbia working as a business consultant and I have had a lot to do with the offshore industry over the years. I have dealt a lot with inbound investment into the Balkans from UAE, Russia and EU. I used to travel frequently to Dubai, but that of course is not so easy at the moment.

Anyhow I hope I can be helpful around here.

Cheers.
Bizniz

 

[Clip]

Interesting. How's the living in Serbia? I know an EU nomad that after getting a Dubai residency was living between Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia for periods of 90 days to avoid triggering the tax status.

 

[bizniz]

Serbia has become very popular with digital nomads lately as evidenced by the number of great co-working centres. In Belgrade, you basically have living standards the same as most EU capital cities for half the price, good fibre optic connections, and you can easily get by with English. (Of course this varies if you go outside the capital city, but then cost of living falls too) Food and wine is great too and people are friendly. Tax authorities really don't care or bother you if you just have foreign income. I think the general attitude is that you are bringing money into the country and you are welcome. Serbia is more business-oriented than Montenegro. Croatia is nice too, is in the EU (an advantage or disadvantage depending on your circumstances and POV), but Croatia is much more expensive.

 

[uplana]

welcome aboard, enjoy your stay and keep distance to your closest

 

[galadrel]

Serbia has become very popular with digital nomads lately as evidenced by the number of great co-working centres. In Belgrade, you basically have living standards the same as most EU capital cities for half the price, good fibre optic connections, and you can easily get by with English. (Of course this varies if you go outside the capital city, but then cost of living falls too) Food and wine is great too and people are friendly. Tax authorities really don't care or bother you if you just have foreign income. I think the general attitude is that you are bringing money into the country and you are welcome. Serbia is more business-oriented than Montenegro. Croatia is nice too, is in the EU (an advantage or disadvantage depending on your circumstances and POV), but Croatia is much more expensive.

Are you not aware of the current persecution of freelancers and generally people who receive foreign income? They're going after people retroactively who received money on their EUR/USD foreign accs and charging up to 80-90% retroactively of tax.

 

[bizniz]

Are you not aware of the current persecution of freelancers and generally people who receive foreign income? They're going after people retroactively who received money on their EUR/USD foreign accs and charging up to 80-90% retroactively of tax.

Yes I've heard about it, but neither I nor anyone I know had this problem. Nowhere is perfect - that' s for sure. If you can update me or correct me, I am very interested to hear. From what I understand, they are going after Serbian taxpayers who earned foreign income, received it in their Serbian bank accounts and did not declare it. The mere fact that people did it shows how relaxed the tax authorities were in the past. Nobody in an EU country would think of receiving foreign income in their home country bank account in their own names without declaring it for taxes, and expect to get away with it.

From personal experience: we transfer dollars and euros in and out of Serbian banks via resident company accounts (including branch of offshore companies) on an almost daily basis for an online marketing business, we pay about EUR 50 to a month to an accountant to take care of tax filings and nobody has bothered us. I also know digital nomads who are not registered as Serbian taxpayers but are based part-time in Belgrade and receive income into non-resident personal bank accounts. They can then spend the money by card anywhere in the world or simply walk into the bank in Serbia and withdraw cash direct from their foreign currency accounts, with no questions asked nor problems to date. Of course, this could and probably will change one day.

 

[mmichi]

Good morning,

I just wanted to say hi as a new member. I have found lots of useful info on this forum forum over many years but never got around to registering. Now I have a little more time because it is holidays, and there are a couple of posts I wanted to comment on, so I decided to join in the action.

I am an expat based in Serbia working as a business consultant and I have had a lot to do with the offshore industry over the years. I have dealt a lot with inbound investment into the Balkans from UAE, Russia and EU. I used to travel frequently to Dubai, but that of course is not so easy at the moment.

Anyhow I hope I can be helpful around here.

Cheers.
Bizniz

How safe are Serbian banks? I am not referring to the bank failing but rather some employee misusing the bank account of a single person somehow. Basically asking about fraud.

Also, another question: Do the Serbian banks allow foreigners to open offshore bank accounts in Serbia remotely?

Thanks

 

[AMD]

Guys take it to a new thread in the right forum!

Welcome aboard, enjoy your stay and keep safe.

 

[galadrel]

Yes I've heard about it, but neither I nor anyone I know had this problem. Nowhere is perfect - that' s for sure. If you can update me or correct me, I am very interested to hear. From what I understand, they are going after Serbian taxpayers who earned foreign income, received it in their Serbian bank accounts and did not declare it. The mere fact that people did it shows how relaxed the tax authorities were in the past. Nobody in an EU country would think of receiving foreign income in their home country bank account in their own names without declaring it for taxes, and expect to get away with it.

From personal experience: we transfer dollars and euros in and out of Serbian banks via resident company accounts (including branch of offshore companies) on an almost daily basis for an online marketing business, we pay about EUR 50 to a month to an accountant to take care of tax filings and nobody has bothered us. I also know digital nomads who are not registered as Serbian taxpayers but are based part-time in Belgrade and receive income into non-resident personal bank accounts. They can then spend the money by card anywhere in the world or simply walk into the bank in Serbia and withdraw cash direct from their foreign currency accounts, with no questions asked nor problems to date. Of course, this could and probably will change one day.

The thing about this persecution is that 99,7% never paid any actual taxes, and so 99,7% couldn't have been possibly all evading taxes? Serbia is a half-baked country, I as a citizen know first hand, it is great for foreign nationals but awful for their own citizens.

You are paying taxes with a company though, which is very much different and isn't affected. As for non residents having bank accounts in Serbia, still not related to it, those people have no legal requirement to pay it and no basis for paying taxes to Serbia.

 

[bizniz]

Guys take it to a new thread in the right forum!

Welcome aboard, enjoy your stay and keep safe.

Thank you for the kind welcome!

Maybe since I am new around here, you could give advice though please on what is the correct forum? Should this be on the Bank Accounts Forum?

 

[bizniz]

The thing about this persecution is that 99,7% never paid any actual taxes, and so 99,7% couldn't have been possibly all evading taxes? Serbia is a half-baked country, I as a citizen know first hand, it is great for foreign nationals but awful for their own citizens.

You are paying taxes with a company though, which is very much different and isn't affected. As for non residents having bank accounts in Serbia, still not related to it, those people have no legal requirement to pay it and no basis for paying taxes to Serbia.

Well, I don't doubt the fact that 99.7% were not paying taxes is true. According to my reading of the law, they were technically evading taxes. The fact that nobody bothered them for so long, shows that the whole system was extremely relaxed.

As for the comment about the country treating foreigners better than its own citizens... well yes, you are totally right. But that is not a Serbian thing at all. It is the same in most countries. That is how the 5 flag theory came about (you can Google it if you are not familiar with it)

 

[newNomad]

Hi dears, new to the forum too. I have ties to both EU countries and the Balkan region so well aware of Serbia and how the things work there Let me know if I can be of any help. Still searching for the best setup for freelancers living in the EU, what I read so far seems there is no fully legal setup to live in EU or keep a residency there and pay minimum taxes correct me if wrong

 

[ayg]

HI, i have an e-commence company selling health and beauty products across the southeast of Asia. I opened a company in Hong Kong but came across the problem that it's almost impossible to open a bank account. Recently, one of the agents offered me to open a company and bank account in Serbia. He explained that this will be a good option right now as there will be no problem with bank opening. Can you please advise your thoughts on opening a company and bank in Serbia as i never heard about this option before.

 

[galadrel]

Well, I don't doubt the fact that 99.7% were not paying taxes is true. According to my reading of the law, they were technically evading taxes. The fact that nobody bothered them for so long, shows that the whole system was extremely relaxed.

As for the comment about the country treating foreigners better than its own citizens... well yes, you are totally right. But that is not a Serbian thing at all. It is the same in most countries. That is how the 5 flag theory came about (you can Google it if you are not familiar with it)

Nobody bothered for so long is because they didn't have the infrastructure and still don't, they only do this now because the budget is running low. The law is old 20 years, it was written in 2001, that being said foreigners will have a nice time in Serbia as long as they don't plan to actually live here as freelancers.

This regime actually tells people to leave the country if they want to, they don't encourage people to stay here. I don't doubt for a moment that within 20 years Serbia will have a population 30% less than the current one.

 

[tradingworldwide321]

Hello @bizniz
Welcome to OffshoreCorpTalk

I hope you are doing well.

After reading your experience, I would like to ask you a question, I would be gladly thankful.
It's about Serbian Endowments. I understand what is by definition, I also understand it can be used for asset protection and planning. However, on the articles of association, it must be written the private goals, and asset protection is just a general goal.


1. Could you please give me some examples of what is a private goal?
2. Could you please tell me what do you think about this private goal? Example: the assets should be used to form and run businesses like franchises of travel agencies, real estate agencies, restaurants, clinics, construction, gym, cosmetics,, women's, men's and children's fashion, and financial services. This will help to create approx 50 jobs located in different places of the world but not in Serbia.
3. Under which structure could we use for holding all theses companies? Under the Endowment, Under a Serbian LLC or any other holding company? We would like to do a capital transfer for each business, but not directly from the Endowment, but in a prudent way. Is it possible?
4. We would need someone or somebody to watch out all the businesses at the same time. Do you know what's the proffesional profile required for doing this? Every company will have its own CEO but for this case it's someone or somebody who will be acting like board of directors of all companies.
5. The endowment has only one beneficiary, but once passed away it should be given to another NPO. Is it possible and how? By a Will written in Serbia?

Thank you, best regards

 

[bizniz]

I think you can just set a general goal of investing in small businesses all over the world. You don't need to get more specific than that.

Regarding the holding company, you should consider availability of the tax treaties with the countries where the businesses are located.

You can write into the Endowment a secondary beneficiary, to replace the first beneficiary if he dies.

 

[tradingworldwide321]

I think you can just set a general goal of investing in small businesses all over the world. You don't need to get more specific than that.

Regarding the holding company, you should consider availability of the tax treaties with the countries where the businesses are located.

You can write into the Endowment a secondary beneficiary, to replace the first beneficiary if he dies.

Thank you for your reply

FInally, how difficult would be openning a bank account in USA and Switzerland? Do you know what would be the minimum balance per month?
Which jurisdictions written above are more friendly with this type of structure?

 

[bizniz]

Minimum balances depend entirely on the bank, not the country.

I would suggest just to open an account in Serbia. That is the point basically, because in Serbia you can open an account declaring the trustee as UBO. I am not sure a USA or Swiss bank would accept that.

 

[tradingworldwide321]

Thank you

Minimum balances depend entirely on the bank, not the country.

I would suggest just to open an account in Serbia. That is the point basically, because in Serbia you can open an account declaring the trustee as UBO. I am not sure a USA or Swiss bank would accept that.