The pandemic and the current crisis may have hindered you from starting your own business, but you should definitely think carefully and consult how to open a business. For many, the fact that some entrepreneurs do not keep books is one of the reasons to opt for this variant.
There is a big difference in whether you are founding an entrepreneurial firm or a limited liability company (d.o.o.).
When you establish a d.o.o., you can do it with, say, 100 dinars and be responsible only for those 100 dinars, whatever happens. And when you are an entrepreneur you are responsible with all your assets. People are usually unaware of this huge difference.
“If someone enters risky business, and is an entrepreneur, he can insure his responsibility, while d.o.o. is a limited liability company, which means that the liability applies only to paid-in capital, there is no liability. As the owner, he has no responsibility, only the company,” explains Dr. Milan Kovacevic for Biznis.rs.
The advantage of doing business as an entrepreneur in relation to d.o.o. is only with flat-rate taxpayers, which is the most common reason why people decide to work as entrepreneurs. It is also important to note that the responsibility of entrepreneurs for obligations does not end by deleting entrepreneurs from the APR Register. Which means that the creditors of the entrepreneur can claim their claims in court from the natural person of the entrepreneur even after deletion from the register.
Tax advisor from PSK Accounting agency, Gordana Aritonovic, says that by registering with the Business Registers Agency, an entrepreneur gets a personal identification number and personal identification number, like any legal entity, but “entrepreneurial activity” is not a separate entity from that natural person. Precisely for this reason, the entrepreneur is liable for obligations to third parties with all his property.
Liability for debts
“I intentionally put the word ‘entrepreneurial action’ in quotation marks because it does not exist in the Law as a formulation. There is only an entrepreneur in the law, and ‘shop’ has become a household name in everyday speech in order to somehow separate that natural person and ‘entrepreneurial shop’,” explains Aritonovic. “To be a doo you have to keep books, and as an entrepreneur you can choose whether you will be an entrepreneur who will keep books or a lump sum. You have the option of keeping books or not. Then you register with the tax administration for flat-rate taxation, you get an estimate in relation to the activity, location, they determine how much they think is your income, taxes and contributions are calculated on that and then you don’t have to keep books,” says Kovacevic.
Also, when deciding to start their own business, many are guided by the fact that in case of termination of work, debts or other unforeseen circumstances, the family members of the entrepreneur are responsible for the debts.
“An entrepreneur is a registered natural person who performs an activity, only that natural person, only in the case that he has made a partnership, so several of them are registered, then everyone takes responsibility. Family members are not responsible for the obligations of entrepreneurs. Only an entrepreneur, because he is a solo person, a kind of innocent entrepreneur,” states Kovacevic.
In case the entrepreneur is a co-owner with some of the family members, then his piece can be charged and that part can affect the family members in that sense.
Our interlocutor believes that what entrepreneurs should pay attention to is that they are under unlimited liability, which means that they are responsible with all their property, B92 reports.
