Quick overview
The local name for VAT in Croatia is ”Porez na dodanu vrijednost” (PDV)
| Standard Rate | Reduced Rate | Other Rates |
| 25% | 13% | 5% |
There are basically 3 VAT rates in Croatia:
- Standard VAT rate is 25%
- Reduced VAT rate is 5% and 13%
For more information about (recent) rate change developments in Croatia, please click here.
- 13%: VAT on heat supply (reduction from the current 25%, will apply permanently)
- 5%: VAT only on gas (it was reduced from 25%, it will be valid from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 , then VAT will be 13%)
- 13%: VAT on pellets, briquettes, wood chips and firewood (reduced from the original 25%)
- 5%: VAT on food (meat and fish, eggs, fruit, vegetables, edible fats and oils, baby food, seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides (reduced from 13 %), butter and margarine (reduction from 25%)
- 13%: VAT on sanitary napkins and tampons (from 25%)
- 5%: VAT on tickets for sports, cultural and other events (reduction from 25 % and 13 %).
Supply of natural gas including consideration related to that supply, made between 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2023, VAT is calculated and paid at the reduced rate of 5%.
Standard rate: 25%
This rate applies for all transactions that take place in Croatia, unless an exception applies (such as a reduced rate, the zero rate or an exemption, or a reason to treat the transaction as outside scope of VAT).
Zero rate (0%)
No goods and services are subject to specific 0% VAT rate besides the ”exemptions” laid down in the EU VAT Directive, such as intra-Community and export supplies of goods and services. Domestic supplies of goods and services relating to international trade. Domestic supplies to international organizations, sea vessels and aircraft and related goods/services, services to goods and goods under customs control, and supplies of monetary gold to central banks.
Reduced rate: 13%
a) accommodation services or accommodation services in hotels including breakfast, half board or full board or facilities with similar purpose, including holiday accommodation, letting of pitches at holiday camps or camping sites and accommodation on nautical tourism vessels,
b) newspapers and magazines of newspaper publishers bearing a media statute and newspapers and magazines of newspaper publishers for which there is no obligation of adopting the media statute under special regulation, other than those from paragraph 2, item g) of this Article which are published periodically, other than those mostly or largely containing advertisements or serving for advertising, and other than those mostly or largely consisting of video recordings or musical content,
c) children’s car seats and babies’ napkins,
d) menstrual supplies,
e) supply of water, other than water marketed in bottles or other packaging, in terms of public water supply and public drainage under special regulation,
f) supply of electricity to other supplier or end user, including considerations related to that supply,
g) supply of natural gas and supply of district heating services, including consideration related to that supply,
h) fuel wood, pellets, briquettes and chipped wood,
i) public service of collecting mixed municipal waste, biodegradable municipal waste and separate collection of waste under special regulation,
j) funerary urns and coffins,
k) services and related copyright of writers, composers and performing artists and bearers of phonogramic rights who are members of relevant organisations for collective exercising of rights and supplying those services under special regulations in the field of copyright and related rights with prior authorisation of government authority competent for intellectual property,
l) preparing and serving food and desserts in and outside of hospitality facilities under special regulation.
Reduced rate: 5%
a) all types of bread,
b) all types of milk (cow, sheep, goat) marketed under the same name in liquid form, fresh, pasteurized, homogenised, condensed (other than soured milk, yoghurt, kefir, chocolate milk and other milk products), breast milk substitutes,
c) books of professional, scientific, artistic, cultural and educational content, pedagogical training and education textbooks, books for primary, secondary and tertiary education, other than those mostly or largely containing advertisements or serving for advertising, and other than those mostly or largely consisting of video recordings or musical content,
d) medicines authorised by an authority competent for medicines and medicinal products
e) medical equipment, aids and other devices used for relief in disability treatment and exclusively for personal use by disabled people prescribed in the general act on orthopaedic and other aids of the Croatian Health Insurance Fund,
f) cinema tickets, concert tickets, tickets for sports and cultural events, other than those referred to in Article 39, paragraph 1, item n) of this Act,
g) newspapers of newspaper publishers bearing a media statute, published daily, other than those mostly or largely containing advertisements or serving for advertising and other than those mostly or largely consisting of video recordings or musical content,
h) scientific magazines,
i) baby food and processed cereal-based food for infants and young children,
j) edible oils and fats of plant and animal origin, butter and margarine,
k) supply of live animals: bovine animals, swine, sheep, goats, horses, asses, farmyard poultry, farmed rabbit and hares,
l) supply of fresh or chilled meat and edible offal from: bovine animals, swine, sheep, goats, horses, asses, farmyard poultry, farmed rabbit and hares,
m) supply of fresh or chilled sausages or similar meat products, meat offal or blood products,
n) supply of fresh fish,
o) supply of fresh or chilled fish, molluscs or other aquatic invertebrates,
p) supply of fresh or chilled crustaceans: lobster, crawfish, shrimp, prawn,
r) supply of fresh or chilled vegetables, roots and tubers, including dried leguminous vegetables,
s) supply of fresh and dried fruits and nuts,
t) supply of fresh poultry eggs in shell,
u) plants and seeds,
v) fertilizers and pesticides and other agrochemical products,
z) products predominantly used as animal feed, other than petfood.
For a description of how the VAT rates are structured in the European Union, please see here. The European Commission has also made an EU VAT rate database available where you can find the applicable VAT rate by entering the CN/CPA code of the goods respectively services (you can find more information here).A global VAT/GST rate overview can be found here (note this is a work in progress).
This post was last updated on December 16, 2022
Source Croatian VAT law – Art 38
