Jurisdiction · Bosnia & Herzegovina

One country. Two entities. Three administrations. One working company.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is not one administrative surface. It is the Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and the Brčko District — same country, three institutional rhythms, a constitutional architecture drafted in Dayton, Ohio. And it shows. Most providers explain this to you at hour two of a discovery call. We took the other route: one fixed price, and the entity question answered for you in writing before anything is filed.

d.o.o.JIB / IDVAT 17%Court registry / APIFBAM — pegged to EUR
Corporate tax10%Flat, in both entities. The base and entity rules are where the discipline starts.
VAT17%Single state-level regime, no reduced rates. Threshold: BAM 100,000 turnover.
Share capitalBAM 1,000FBiH reference for a d.o.o. — about €510. Differs by entity and structure.
Typical timeline3–5 wksOnce the founder file is complete. The registry is not the slow part; the file is.
The theory

Federal law in theory. Entity practice in fact.

Company law lives at entity level: the FBiH Law on Companies and the Republika Srpska Law on Companies each govern the limited liability company — društvo sa ograničenom odgovornošću, the d.o.o. The forms are siblings, not twins: capital requirements, registry mechanics and notarial practice diverge just enough to matter.

Registration follows geography. In the Federation the founding act is notarised and filed with the court registry of the competent municipal court; in Republika Srpska the process runs through the APIF-linked one-stop route; the Brčko District keeps its own procedure, because of course it does. The company then obtains its JIB tax identification and statistical registrations.

One thing genuinely is unified: indirect tax. VAT is state-level, administered by the Indirect Taxation Authority (Uprava za indirektno oporezivanje) — a single 17% rate, no reduced bands, registration mandatory above BAM 100,000 of taxable turnover. The convertible mark is currency-board pegged to the euro at 1.95583, which quietly removes one whole category of risk from the model.

Entity routes

Three ways in. We pick one — in writing.

The entity choice is not cosmetic: registration body, notary logic, tax administration and even banking behaviour change with geography. The fix includes the assessment — you get a written route recommendation before anything is filed, not a shrug and an hourly rate.

FBiH · Sarajevo

Federation route

The default for most foreign founders: court registry, the largest market, the deepest professional infrastructure. Notarised founding act, municipal court filing.

Covered by the fix
RS · Banja Luka

Republika Srpska route

APIF-linked registration, sometimes leaner in cost and pace. Relevant when office, activity or local partner logic points east.

Covered by the fix
Brčko District

The third answer

A separate legal regime inside an already layered country. Rarely the answer — but always worth the question, which is why we ask it for you.

Covered by the fix
Process

The scenario, start to finish.

The same scenario as everywhere on this desk — pay first, then a checklist, not a correspondence thread. Bosnia simply has one extra decision inside it, and we make it early.

01

Pay the fix

€4,000 through Stripe. No discovery call, no proposal deck. The scenario starts the same day.

02

KYC and the entity decision

We run standard checks, collect the founder file and issue the written route recommendation: Federation, Republika Srpska or Brčko. If we cannot act for you, the fix is refunded in full.

03

Founding documents

Company name, registered seat, director, activity codes and the founding act — osnivački akt — prepared and notarised. Apostilles and sworn translations are ours to coordinate, not yours to discover.

04

Registry filing

Court registry in the Federation, APIF route in Republika Srpska, Brčko's own procedure if that is the answer. State fees are paid from the fix.

05

Tax, statistics and VAT position

JIB, statistical registration, and the VAT question with the Indirect Taxation Authority — mandatory above BAM 100,000, voluntary where the model justifies it.

06

Handover and banking

Complete corporate file handed over — and the complimentary banking file goes to onboarding, prepared and presented at no charge.

Taxes

Simple rates. Less simple application.

Bosnia's headline numbers are genuinely light. The discipline lives underneath them: deductibility, related-party flows and entity-level rules still expect adult supervision.

CIT10%

Corporate income tax, generally 10% in both entities. Good headline; the tax base is where the work begins.

VAT17%

Single unified rate, no reduced bands. Mandatory registration above BAM 100,000 taxable turnover; voluntary case by case.

WHTReview

Dividends, interest, royalties and service payments need treaty and entity-level review. The 10% headline does not solve outbound payments.

BooksMonth 1

Bookkeeping, financial statements, payroll and contributions depend on entity and activity. Keep it current from the first month.

Banking

The bank is the second project. Ours, not yours.

Banks in Bosnia open resident company accounts, including foreign-currency accounts — but a foreign-owned company should expect the ordinary AML questions to feel very concrete. What do you sell? To whom? Why Bosnia? Where does the money come from?

If the answers are vague, the file becomes “under review”. Beautiful phrase. Terrible place to live. So we build the banking file inside the fix — complimentary, with no price attached — and if a bank says no, you owe nothing for the attempt. We take the file to the next one.

Complimentary — no price, no obligation
The fix · Bosnia

One payment. One scenario. One working company.

  • d.o.o. registration, all formalities
  • State fees, notary, translations
  • One individual founder-owner
  • Registered address, 12 months
  • Corporate file at handover
  • Complimentary banking file

The fix covers the standard scenario: one individual founder-owner, standard activity, no regulated licence. Corporate shareholders, multiple founders or licensed activities are quoted separately. We run standard KYC first — if we cannot act for you, the fix is refunded in full. Payment is processed by Stripe; the invoice is issued by Voixa Consultors S.L.