Serbia: local rules

Serbia sets the arm's length rule in articles 59 to 61b of the Corporate Income Tax Law (Zakon o porezu na dobit pravnih lica). A person is related if it can control the taxpayer or strongly influence its business decisions. Owning at least 25% of shares or votes counts, and so do close family ties and any non-resident company from a jurisdiction with a preferential tax system (art. 59). If the transfer price differs from the arm's length price, the taxpayer must add the difference to its tax base. A price inside the arm's length range is accepted, and a price outside it is moved to the median (art. 60(8) to (10)). The Minister of Finance sets the details in the Rulebook on transfer pricing and arm's length methods (Pravilnik o transfernim cenama i metodama koje se po principu van dohvata ruke primenjuju), which follows OECD sources (art. 61a). The Minister also publishes safe harbour interest rates for related-party loans each year (art. 61(3); 2026 rates in Sl. glasnik RS 36/2026).

Every taxpayer with transactions with related persons must show them separately in its tax balance and attach transfer pricing documentation to the tax balance (art. 60(1) and (3)). It is filed with the corporate tax return, so it is due 180 days after the end of the tax year. A short report is allowed when a transaction is one-off and not above the VAT registration turnover (RSD 8 million under VAT Law art. 33), or when all transactions with one related person in the year are not above that amount (art. 60(4)). Interest on loans, advances and VAT do not count toward that amount, and a sale of fixed assets to a related person needs no documentation (art. 60(5) and (6)). There is no separate master file. The Rulebook asks the Serbian company to describe its group in its own report, and to name its ultimate parent and where it is resident. The exact contents of the Rulebook were not checked at source.

Article 61 lists the comparable uncontrolled price, cost plus, resale price, transactional net margin and profit split methods. Any other method can be used if the listed ones do not work or another fits the case better. The best fitting method must be used, and methods can be combined. Taxpayers may use the yearly safe harbour interest rate for related-party loans, or prove their own arm's length rate for all their related-party loans (art. 61(3) to (6)).

The Corporate Income Tax Law itself has no fine for missing or incomplete documentation. Under art. 112a the tax authority issues a warning and sets a period of 30 to 90 days to file or complete it. Failing to file the tax return and tax balance on time is a tax offence under the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration (art. 177). A company that files nothing and pays nothing faces a fine of 30% to 100% of the tax due, and not less than RSD 500,000. A company that does not file but pays on time faces RSD 100,000 to RSD 2 million. A return filed without the tax balance counts as not filed (CIT Law art. 63(8)). Adviser sources that apply the RSD 100,000 to 2 million range, or a fine of up to 5% of the transaction, to transfer pricing documentation itself were not confirmed in the laws read.

Serbia has not enacted Pillar Two. No global minimum tax law, qualified domestic top-up tax or income inclusion rule was found in the Corporate Income Tax Law (consolidated to Sl. glasnik RS 80/2026) or in any draft. The standard rate is 15%. Serbian groups can still be affected through rules in other countries, so there is no Serbian filing or deadline.

The corporate tax return and tax balance are due 180 days after the end of the tax year, so 29 June for a calendar year (art. 63(3)). The tax year is the calendar year. A company that has consent from the Minister of Finance or the National Bank to use a different 12-month business year can get the tax authority's approval to use it as its tax year, and must keep it for at least five years (art. 38). Country-by-country reporting exists. A resident ultimate parent of a group with consolidated revenue of at least EUR 750 million files the annual report within 12 months of year end (art. 61v). There is no CbC notification. Amendments published in Sl. glasnik RS 80/2026 add EU-style rules such as a 30% of EBITDA interest limit (art. 62a), but these apply only from the day Serbia joins the EU.