August 2024

The Ministry of Finance has published the Rulebook on Amendments to the VAT Rulebook (which will come into force from September 1st, 2024, except for the regulations relating to the presentation of data in the POPDV form, which will be applied starting from the submission of tax returns for tax periods starting after August 31st, 2024).

The Ministry of Finance also adopted the Rulebook on Amendments to the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing, which will come into force from September 1st, 2024, except for the regulations relating to the electronic recording of input VAT, which will be applied for tax periods determined by the VAT Law and begin after August 31st, 2024.

The Rulebooks were published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 65/24, dated August 2nd, 2024.

The most important amendments to the VAT Rulebook relate to:

• conditions for the reduction of the calculated VAT due to the subsequent reduction of the base;
• fulfilment of the conditions for tax exemption with right of deduction related to invoicing and certification of invoices by the customs authority;
• document on the amendment of the VAT base;
• rules for issuing invoices;
• invoice, i.e. an electronic invoice for consequent deliveries of goods or services;
• internal invoice that is made by the recipient of goods or services as tax debtor (the period within which the tax debtor is obliged to compile such invoices);
• general and specific VAT records that the taxpayer is obliged to keep;
• new rules for the presentation of data in the POPDV Form.

In accordance with the amendments to the VAT Rulebook, more details may be found below:

1. Article 54 of VAT Rulebook refers to the method of amending the tax base, i.e. subsequent reduction of the tax base for taxable turnover of goods or services performed by a VAT payer, i.e. a foreign entity that is not a VAT payer in the Republic of Serbia. Namely, in this case, the recipient of goods or services, tax debtor for the stated turnover, has the right to reduce the amount of calculated VAT if an internal invoice was compiled and if the tax debtor has corrected the deduction of input VAT in accordance with the Rulebook. Specifically, the amendment refers to the exemption of the obligation to obtain a reduction of the base document submitted by the VAT payer/non-resident that performed the supply of goods/services as a relevant document for the reduction of the amount of calculated VAT.
   
   Also, Article 54a was additionally introduced, which regulates the provisions of Articles 53 and 54 of the Rulebook. These articles are also applied in the case when the charged or paid advance ceases to be considered an advance payment for the sale of goods or services, in full or in part.
2. Article 101a has been introduced, which generally regulates the conditions for obtaining tax exemption in two cases. First, the condition for tax exemption relating to the issuance of invoices in accordance with the Rulebook shall be deemed to have been fulfilled for the tax period in which the turnover occurred if the invoice was issued as of the 10th day of the calendar month following the tax period in which the turnover occurred. Secondly, the condition for obtaining tax exemption, which relates to an invoice certified by the competent customs authority, in accordance with the Rulebook, is considered fulfilled for the tax period in which the turnover occurred if the invoice is certified on the 10th day of the calendar month following the tax period in which the turnover occurred. 
   
   With this in mind, Article 95b, which regulates the conditions for obtaining tax exemption (primarily refers to entry into the free customs zone), i.e. the condition concerning the invoice verification period by the competent customs authority has been deleted.
3. Article 165 refers to the situation when a VAT payer receives an advance payment in the same tax period in which the turnover of goods and services has occurred (for which an advance payment was received), in which case the taxpayer is not obliged to issue an invoice based on the received advance payment, but only the invoice for the completed turnover of goods and services. This article has been deleted. Therefore, the exclusion of this rule represents harmonization with the rules on electronic invoicing, whereby the intention of the legislator is to impose the obligation to issue invoices in cases where the advance payment and turnover of goods and/or services are made in the same tax period.
4. Article 182, which specifies the document on the reduction or increase of VAT base as well as its content, was amended to add another mandatory information category, namely the date of the fee increase, i.e. the base if the increase did not occur on the day of the issuance of the increase document (debit note). The above also applies in the case of a decrease in the advance payment, in which case the document on the reduction contains information on the number and date of issuance of the advance invoice (credit note).
5. Article 191a has been introduced, which regulates the issuance of invoices for successive turnover of goods and services, i.e. a VAT payer may issue one invoice for several turnovers of goods and services performed on the same day to one entity, ie. if a tax liability has arisen for all transactions on the same day in accordance with the Law.
   
   Also, Article 191b has been introduced, which refers to the turnover of buildings, economically divisible units within buildings and ownership shares in these goods, whereby a separate invoice is issued for the above. More precisely, it is stated that such an invoice may contain data on the turnover of one or more goods, regardless of whether there is an obligation to calculate VAT, the VAT rate at which VAT is calculated and whether the tax debtor is a supplier or recipient of goods in accordance with the Law.
6. Article 192, which regulates the rules for issuing a single invoice, including an electronic invoice, for several individual supplies of goods or services made to one person in a tax period, contains several amendments. One of the changes specifies that the issuance of one invoice to one person for several individual turnovers of goods or services refers to a specific tax period.
   
   Another important change refers to the time period during which such invoice should be issued in specific cases, i.e. that the invoice, with the exception of electronic invoices, is issued starting from the day when the last turnover of goods or services in the tax period occurred until the last day of that tax period.
   
   If such an invoice is issued for a period shorter than the tax period in which the turnover occurred, that invoice shall be issued starting from the day on which the last turnover of goods or services occurred in that period until the last day of that tax period.
   
   Also, it is stated that an electronic invoice can be issued within 8 days from the date of tax period expiry, and that the date of turnover stated on is actually the day when the last turnover of goods or services in the tax period was made, i.e. the last day of that tax period. If an electronic invoice is issued for a period shorter than the tax period, the date of turnover is the day on which the last turnover of goods or services was made in that time period, i.e. the last day of that time period.
7. Article 196, which refers to the preparation of an internal invoice based on the turnover of goods and services for which there is an obligation to calculate VAT, which is carried out in the Republic of Serbia by a foreign entity that is not a VAT payer, contains additional amendments. Namely, the stated invoice must be issued within 8 days from the date of tax period expiry, for additional categories such as increase in fees for the sale of goods and services, advance payments, decrease in advance payments and fee decrease for the sale of goods and services. In addition to the above changes, mandatory information that should be included in the previously mentioned internal invoice was introduced, as well as other specifics related to the issuance of an internal invoice.
8. The new Article 202b specifies that the VAT payer may cancel the invoice for the turnover of goods and services, the increase or decrease document of the turnover fee, the advance invoice, the reduction document for advance payment, as well as the internal invoice referred to in Article 196 mentioned above.
9. Article 212, which refers to the form, content and manner of keeping VAT records, namely the general records and the data that is contained within those records, introduces new points such as the amount of VAT that can or cannot be deducted as input tax and corrections of the deduction of input tax - increase, or a reduction. The above data is recorded separately by tax rates.
10. Articles 220a and 220b have been introduced and are directly related to Article 212 i.e. new points that have been introduced to the above article and specify them in more detail.
11. Article 233 relating to data records in regard to equipment and facilities for the performance of activities, i.e. investments in facilities for the performance of activities contains new points as well as clarifications on special records that are necessary in the aforementioned situations, such as the mandatory date of acquisition of equipment and facilities in the records, the amount of VAT based on the acquisition of the facility, investments, etc.
12. Article 237a has been introduced, which refers directly to Article 202b (item 8 of this text) and relates to a special record of the documents cancellation listed in Article 202b, as well as the mandatory data of such records.
13. In Article 243, which refers to the completion of the POPDV form, more precisely part 3 - taxable turnover of goods and services performed by the VAT payer and the calculation of VAT, in fields 3.6. the part of the text that relates to data on the reduction of the base, i.e. VAT based on the invoice cancellation for the turnover of goods and services that is entered in this field, has been deleted.
14. In Article 244 relating to filling in the POPDV form in Part 3a - Calculated VAT for the turnover of another person, the part relating to the reduction of the amount of VAT calculated based on paid advance for such turnover (in fields 3a1, 3a2 and 3a3) has been amended to specify that the data regarding advances should be included in POPDV form regardless of whether the tax liability was incurred based on the paid advance payment in the same or different tax period.
    
    The new Article 255a specifies in more detail Article 255 and the situations in which, during the cancellation of certain types of invoices and documents on the reduction/increase of the base, and the amount of calculated VAT in the POPDV form have been amended.

The most important amendments to the Rules on Electronic Invoicing relate to:

• prescribing new records of input VAT;
• changes in the Individual VAT Calculation Record;
• changes in the Group VAT Calculation Record on SEF;
• new rules for the presentation of data based on the changes in VAT base on SEF and cancellation of invoices and other documents;
• the deadlines for recording VAT on SEF;
• changes in tax categories and codes based on exemption.

In accordance with the amendments to the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing, more details may be found below:

1. The amendment to Article 1 includes the amendment of the general questions (i.e. solutions from the Law on Electronic Invoicing) regulated by the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing. Primarily, point 5) has been supplemented and now the Rulebook regulates: 5) the manner and procedure of electronic recording of VAT calculation and correction of VAT calculation in the electronic invoice system. Also, item 5a) is included, which introduces more detailed regulation of the manner and procedure of electronic recording of input tax and the correction of input tax in the system of electronic invoices.
2. A new Article 9a has been introduced, which lists the entity statuses for which the user of the electronic invoice system can opt for, as well as the tax period for which user submits a VAT return in accordance with the VAT Law.
3. Point 14a) of Article 12 was introduced, which prescribes the content of the electronic invoice, and the point refers to the application code of a certain tax category and replaces point 15), which referred to the note on the provision of VAT Law, based on which the VAT marked with the code was not calculated.
4. By amending Article 13 relating to the tax categories referred to in Article 12, paragraph 1, item 4) and the letter codes of these categories, formal changes were made to the letter codes and additional letter codes for certain tax categories were adopted. In addition, the adopted additional paragraphs of the stated Article regulate in more detail the issuance of electronic invoices for the sale of facilities, economically divisible units within these facilities and ownership shares, as well as additional specifics.
5. The new paragraphs of Article 18 specify that individual VAT records refer to the recording of data on purchases, i.e. supplies in accordance with the Law, and further specifies the deadline for submitting individual and group VAT records for a period of 10 days in the calendar month following the tax period for which electronic recording of VAT calculation is performed.
6. Article 19, which relates to the content of the VAT group records, includes new formal changes as well as substantive changes to the mandatory data included in the records. Some of the examples are the new points, such as point 6) which refers to special taxation procedures related to, for example, tourist services, and additional specification in points 7) to 10) which refer to the increase/decrease of the base, i.e. VAT, as well as reversal in situations where the tax debtor is the supplier or recipient.
7. Article 20, which refers to the content of individual VAT records, has been amended, and it is specified that it refers to individual VAT records relating to purchases. In addition, the points relating to the content of such records additionally include changes that correspond to the changes in the VAT Rulebook. The amendments also relate to compliance with the amendments contained in Article 13 (point 4 of this text).
   
   Finally, Article 20a has been introduced, which specifies the content of the individual VAT records relating to supplies.
8. Article 22, which refers to the reduction document, now specifies the data that must be entered into the VAT Group Records in relation to the reduction in cases where that document is issued to a entity that is or is not subject to VAT.
9. Amendments to Article 23 refer to the cancellation of electronic invoices and state that in this particular case, reduction or increase data of the VAT base and VAT in the relevant fields for the relevant tax period shall be reported in the VAT Summary Records.
10. The amendment to Article 24 regulates in more detail the procedure relating to the Individual and Group VAT Records in cases where the Individual Records are made based on the selection of a decrease or increase.
11. Amendments to Article 26, which refers to the change of the VAT base and the change of VAT in the case when the electronic recording of VAT calculation is made based on the base assessment in accordance with the VAT Law, state that from now on, the Individual VAT Records are compiled based on the decrease or increase selection and in accordance with Article 24 of the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing.
12. Hereafter, the Rulebook includes a new title entitled "Method and Procedure of Electronic Recording of Input Tax in the System of Electronic Invoices”, which contains four new articles related to the method of electronic recording of input tax, the prescribed deadline for recording of such, which is 10 days from the date of expiry of the tax period, as well as recording data by type of account. The  data that the input tax records should contain, as well as the specifics of certain situations, are also specified.
    
    Article 28a determines the group recording of input tax for the tax period within the above-mentioned deadline by entering, i.e. automatically entering certain data into the appropriate interface of the Input Tax Records within SEF.
    
    Data related to supply is recorded by sources – types of invoices, namely: electronic invoices, fiscal invoices and other invoices. Data relating to the purchase of goods and services from foreign persons, i.e. VAT payers, in cases where the recipient of goods/services is the tax debtor, are also recorded collectively from individual VAT records made on the basis of internal accounts, as follows: internal accounts – foreign person; internal accounts – VAT payer.
     

The Input Tax Records contain information on:

1. the number of the Input Tax Records, the status and date of submission;
2. the year, the tax period (month or quarter) and the period (a specific month or quarter);
3. purchases of goods and services in the Republic of Serbia from VAT payers - turnover for which the tax debtor is the supplier of goods, i.e. the provider of services;
4. purchases of goods and services in the Republic of Serbia from VAT payers - turnover for which the tax debtor is the recipient of goods or services;
5. VAT paid for the import/delivery of goods put into free circulation in accordance with customs regulations;
6. VAT reimbursement paid to the farmer, including an increase;
7. adjustments to the deduction of prior tax.

Additional paragraphs and points specify the above-mentioned categories of data.

Article 28v prescribes automatic data entry, which is carried out after the expiry of the tax period for which the electronic recording of the previous tax is made, from the 1st to the 10th of the calendar month following that tax period. In case of automatic entry, data regarding balance on the day preceding the day of automatic entry is recorded.

Article 28g prescribes the obligation to correct electronic records of input tax in cases where an electronic invoice is issued subsequently (from the 10th day of the calendar month following the tax period in which the tax liability arose in accordance with the VAT Law until the expiry of the deadline for filing the tax return for that tax period or other change that affects the electronic recording of input tax), until the deadline for submitting the tax return for that period.

Article 28d prescribes the status of records of input tax: recorded and corrected.