The Ministry of Finance calls on all legal entities and entrepreneurs engaged in the provision of accounting services in the Republic of Serbia, who have not yet fulfilled the legal obligation and harmonized their operations with the Law on Accounting -entered into force on January 1, 2020-, to timely submit a request for obtaining permits for the provision of accounting services and to register in the Register of Accounting Service Providers.
Legal entities or entrepreneurs whose main activity is provision of accounting services, are obliged to harmonize their operations with the provisions of the Law on Accounting, at the latest within three years from the date of entry into force of this law, meaning by January 1, 2023.
This means that the legal entities and entrepreneurs must be licensed to provide accounting services by the Chamber of Authorized Auditors and be registered in the Register of Accounting Service Providers maintained by the Agency for Business Registers (APR).
The deadline for harmonizing the accounting service provider’s operations with the Accounting Act will not be extended.
A legal entity, i.e. an entrepreneur, can entrust the keeping of business books and the preparation of financial reports by contract in accordance with the law, exclusively to a legal entity or an entrepreneur who is registered in the Register and that has at least one full-time employee with a professional by a title in the field of accounting or auditing, which was obtained from a professional organization that is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), or that the entrepreneur himself meets this criterion.
For failure to act in accordance with the aforementioned provisions of the Accounting Act, this law prescribes fines, namely: 1.) from 100,000 to 3,000,000 dinars economic offense for a legal entity, 2.) from 20,000 to 150,000 dinars economic offense for a responsible person into a legal entity and 3.) from 100,000 to 500,000 dinars, a misdemeanor for an entrepreneur.
In accordance with the Rulebook on the conditions and manner of public publication of financial statements and keeping the Register of Financial Statements, which was adopted on the basis of the Law, it is prescribed that starting from January 1, 2023, a financial statement will not be considered complete if it was drawn up by a legal entity , that is, an entrepreneur who is not registered in the Register in the case where the keeping of business books is entrusted. In that case, APR will, without any delay, make such a report public as incomplete.
For further information please contact Ms. Natasa Nedic, Country Executive in our Eurofast office in Belgrade, Serbia at belgrade@eurofast.eu
Natasa Nedic
Country Executive
Eurofast Belgrade
belgrade@eurofast.eu