Quick overview
| Standard Rate | Reduced Rate | Other Rates |
| 20% | 10% | 0% |
The local name for VAT in Serbia is Porez na dodatu vrednost (PDV) and it was introduced on 1 January 2005.
Recent developments
At this points, we have not spotted any recent developments regarding VAT rates in Serbia, but if we do, you can find them here.
Standard rate: 20%
This is in place since 1 October 2012. Before that, the standard rate was 18%. This rate applies for all transactions that take place in Serbia, 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%)
Serbia applies various exemptions with a refund of tax paid at preceding stages (zero rates), such as:
- Export of goods
- International transportation services and related transactions
- Supplies of goods and services relating to aircrafts and ships used in international traffic
Reduced rate: 10 %
Paragraph 23 of the VAT law defines the list of goods and services taxable according to the reduced rate, which includes:
- Bread and other baked products, milk and dairy products, flour, sugar, edible sunflower seed oil, maize, rapeseed, soybean and olive oils, and edible fats of animal and vegetable origin and honey;
- Fresh, chilled and frozen fruits, vegetables, meats, including giblets and other slaughterhouse products, fish and eggs;
- Cereals, sunflower seeds, soybean, sugar beet and rapeseed;
- Medicaments, including the ones used in veterinary medicine;
- Orthotic and prosthetic aids, as well as medical aids – products that are surgically implanted in the organism;
- Dialysis materials;
- Fertilizers, pesticides, seed stock, nursery stock, compost with mycelia, complete fodder mixtures for cattle and livestock;
- Textbooks and teaching aids;
- Daily newspapers;
- Monographs and serial publications;
- Firewood, including briquettes, pellets and other similar goods made of wooden biomass;
- Accommodation in hotel facilities in keeping with the Law regulating the area of turism;
- Services charged through tickets for the cinema and theater shows, fairs, circuses, amusement parks, concerts (music events), exhibitions, sporting events, museums and galleries, botanical gardens and zoos, if the sale of such services is not exempt from VAT;
- Natural gas;
- Thermal energy for heating purposes;
- Transfer of rights of disposal over residential buildings, economically divisible units within those buildings, as well as over equity stakes on such properties;
- Services that precede the supply of drinking water through water supply network, as well as drinking water, other than bottled water;
- Treatment and disposal of storm water and wastewater;
- Management of municipal waste;
- Rubbish cleaning in the areas for public use;
- Rubbish cleaning in green spaces and coastal areas;
- Passenger transport and transport of accompanying passenger baggage;
- Managing cemeteries and funeral services.
A global VAT/GST rate overview can be found here (note this is a work in progress).
This post was last updated on 18 April 2021.
