How Can Foreigners Collect Invoices from Local Debtors?

In the past period, Serbia has largely liberalized the arrival of foreign nationals by shortening the administrative procedure and easing the requirements for the obtaining of residence and work permits, as well as citizenship.

The position of foreign companies in Serbia largely depends on what kind of protection they can get in a court procedure. One of the questions that the foreigners who operate in our country often ask is what they can do if a local debtor does not make the payment per an invoice that is issued abroad and regularly sent to the debtor?

On the side of the regulations, the Law on Enforcement and Security Interest of the Republic of Serbia recognizes an invoice issued by a foreign legal entity as equal with an invoice issued by a local legal entity in terms of being valid documents based on which enforced collection can be carried out. The invoice needs to be accompanied by the delivery note or other written proof of the fact that the debtor has been informed of their obligation.

The stipulations of the law do not proscribe any special condition for the enforcement of invoice collection by a foreign legal entity, aside from the obligation of translating the valid document into Serbian. So, there is no obligation of the foreign invoice first being recognized in a court procedure, which can be the case, for example, in court decisions made abroad. An invoice as a valid document can be issued in electronic form or the usual form.

However, according to the lawyers from the Stojkovic Attorneys Law Office, the law does proscribe that the money is transferred to the account of the foreign company as the enforcement creditor, so transfer to the account of some other entity is not allowed, even if that entity has the power of attorney from the creditor.

– In order to collect the claims in an enforcement procedure, there are two ways, considering that the payment has to be made in dinars. The first way is for the foreign company as the creditor to open a non-resident account in Serbia in line with the regulations pertaining to foreign payment operations. The other way is for the foreign company to transfer the claims to a local company by a contract authorized by a public notary – the lawyers explain.

The transaction of goods and services received from a non-resident creditor is registered in line with the Law on Foreign Exchange Operations. The customs clearance of the goods is done in line with the customs law, whereas the payment of the foreign exchange debts toward the foreign supplier is done in line with the guidelines for the implementation of the decision on the conditions and the manner of foreign payment operations.

Računovodstvena komora Srbije Beograd

Stojković Advokati

Snežana Mitrović

Law on Enforcement and Security Interest of the Republic of Serbia

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