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Serbia e-Invoicing
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Serbia routes invoicing through the state-run Sistem e-Faktura (SEF), mandatory for public sector transactions since 1 May 2022 and between VAT-registered private sector entities since 1 January 2023. Calculated VAT and input tax are recorded in the same platform. Retail sales stay out unless the buyer pays by corporate card.
Previous
1 January 2023B2B
B2B e-invoicing and electronic VAT recording begin
Latest
1 August 2026B2B
Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing amended (Official Gazette 71/2026)
Next
1 January 2027
Preliminary VAT return applies
Serbia e-Invoicing Overview
B2B
mandatory
since 1 January 2023Article 3 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing obliges private sector entities to issue e-invoices on their mutual transactions, and Article 24 sets 1 January 2023 as the start date for both issuing and storage. A private sector entity means a VAT payer, so businesses below VAT registration fall outside the duty and may instead enrol as voluntary users, which binds them for the current and the following calendar year. The tax representative of a foreign person in Serbia carries the same issuing duty. Electronic VAT recording for transactions with no public sector party began on the same date.
B2G
mandatory
since 1 May 2022Under Article 24 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing , private sector suppliers have had to issue e-invoices to public bodies since 1 May 2022, the date public bodies also began receiving and storing them and invoicing each other. Public bodies had to start issuing to private suppliers on 1 July 2022. Any claim for payment that moves money to the claimant counts as an e-invoice. Public sector e-invoices are held permanently in SEF rather than for a fixed retention period.
B2C
none
Article 3(2)(1) of the Law on Electronic Invoicing keeps retail sales and advances for retail sales outside the e-invoicing duty, leaving them to fiscal receipts under the fiscalisation law. Two retail cases were pulled back in for tax periods beginning after 31 March 2026: sales to the holder of a corporate card, and sales to a public sector entity that asks for an e-invoice within seven days of the sale. In both, the e-invoice may only be issued once the fiscal receipt has been issued.
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Implementation Timeline(10 events)
Key mandate dates. Select a date for detail, or show all updates below.
Public sector receipt and private-to-public issuing begin
1 May 2022
B2G
Public bodies must issue e-invoices to private suppliers
1 July 2022
B2G
Subject status and customs declaration list added
1 January 2025
All
Amendments in Official Gazette 94/2024 applied from this date, adding the Article 3a duty to declare and keep current a subject status showing VAT registration and tax period, and the Article 4b list of customs declarations drawn from Customs Administration data, per the Law on Electronic Invoicing .
Law on Electronic Invoicing amendments enter into force
12 December 2025
All
Electronic delivery notes start for public sector and excise goods
1 January 2026
All
Article 16 of the Law on Electronic Delivery Notes brought public sector movements, private-to-public movements and all movements of excise goods into the eOtpremnica system, which went live on the production environment on 30 December 2025. Data errors were disregarded in supervision until 30 June 2026.
Retail to corporate cardholders and internal invoices in SEF
1 April 2026
B2B
For tax periods beginning after 31 March 2026, Article 3 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing requires an e-invoice for retail sales to corporate cardholders and for retail sales to public bodies that request one within seven days. Reverse-charge purchases are recorded in SEF as an internal invoice under the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing amended by Official Gazette 30/2026.
Rulebook amended for preliminary VAT returns and outage handling
1 August 2026
All
The amendment published in Official Gazette 71 of 31 July 2026 took effect the following day. It added a chapter on compiling the preliminary VAT return in SEF from three forms, and a chapter on temporary outages setting a daily maintenance window of 01:00 to 06:00 and deferring VAT recording to the first working day after service resumes, per the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing .
Preliminary VAT return applies
1 January 2027
All
Electronic delivery notes extend to private sector movements
1 October 2027
All
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Compliance Regime
Tax Authority
CTC Model
Centralised platform
Centralised exchange with no pre-clearance. Article 5 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing makes SEF compulsory for public and private sector entities, which register for access and then send, receive, record and store through it, directly or through an information intermediary approved by the Ministry of Finance. SEF is run by the Central Information Intermediary, a unit inside the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry supervises the law under Article 16. Invoices are not authorised before issue, but Articles 4 and 4a require the issuer to record calculated VAT and the recipient to record input tax in the system after the tax period closes, and Article 5 makes SEF the place where the preliminary VAT return is compiled. Cross-border receipt is narrower: Article 6 lets SEF take invoices issued to the European standard directly only where a foreign issuer invoices a public body, with all other recipients relying on an information intermediary.
Standards
EN 16931-1, SRPS EN 16931-1:2017
Record-keeping & Reporting
Archiving
Article 15 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing holds e-invoices issued or received by a public body permanently in SEF, and sets 10 years from the end of the year of issue for private sector entities. Private sector copies sit either in SEF or in the system of an information intermediary engaged for storage, and pass to the Central Information Intermediary if that intermediary enters bankruptcy or liquidation. Authenticity of origin and integrity of content must hold from issue until the retention period ends, secured by issuing in the prescribed format and storing in a format fit for electronic retention. A printed copy made before the period expires stays authentic afterwards, and the same rules extend to other documents processed in SEF.
Technical Formats
UBL 2.1 (XML)
Penalties
Failure to issue e-invoices or record VAT
Article 18 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing fines a legal person in the private sector, or a public enterprise, RSD 200,000 to RSD 2,000,000 for breaching the duty to issue an e-invoice, failing to declare or reconcile its subject status, failing to record VAT electronically, not using SEF as required, or using SEF data for purposes the law does not prescribe. An entrepreneur faces RSD 50,000 to RSD 500,000 and the responsible person RSD 50,000 to RSD 150,000.
Correction before supervision
A VAT recording error is treated as no offence where the taxpayer corrects it before supervision under Article 16 opens, a safe harbour added to Article 18 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing by Official Gazette 94/2024 and widened by 109/2025. The separate transitional tolerance, under which the Ministry of Finance disregarded errors in VAT records, ran only to 31 December 2025.
Information intermediary endangering SEF
Obstructing inspection
Article 21 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing fines an issuer, recipient or information intermediary RSD 200,000 to RSD 2,000,000 for refusing an inspector access to business data, documentation and the technical equipment covered by Article 17. An entrepreneur faces RSD 50,000 to RSD 500,000 and the responsible person RSD 50,000 to RSD 150,000.
Exemptions
Retail sales
Defence and security procurement
Procurement, modernisation and overhaul of arms and military equipment, purchases of security-sensitive equipment and related supplies fall outside the duty, including payment claims under contracts with defence or security aspects excluded from public procurement law, per Article 3(2)(3) of the Law on Electronic Invoicing .
Electricity system transactions and free supplies
Public revenues, framework agreements and court costs
Contractual obligations towards beneficiaries of international framework agreements, transactions whose consideration is a public revenue under budget system law unless VAT is chargeable, and claims for costs and fees in court or other proceedings paid from the court's own funds are all outside the duty, per Article 3(2) of the Law on Electronic Invoicing .
Latest Update
Technical Update
1 Aug 2026Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing amended (Official Gazette 71/2026)
The Ministry of Finance amended the Rulebook on Electronic Invoicing in Official Gazette 71 of 31 July 2026, in force the next day. It adds rules for compiling the preliminary VAT return in SEF and a chapter on handling temporary outages of the system. The preliminary VAT return provisions apply for tax periods beginning after 31 December 2026.
Join the discussion
Small change to the SEF rulebook from 1 August that is worth knowing about. There is now a fixed maintenance window every night, 01:00 to…
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Read our full Serbia e-invoicing compliance guide
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Frequently asked questions about e-Invoicing in Serbia
Yes, e-Invoicing is mandatory in Serbia for B2B (since 1 January 2023) and B2G (since 1 May 2022) transactions.
B2B e-Invoicing in Serbia is mandatory since 1 January 2023. Article 3 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing obliges private sector entities to issue e-invoices on their mutual transactions, and Article 24 sets 1 January 2023 as the start date for both issuing and storage. A private sector entity means a VAT payer, so businesses below VAT registration fall outside the duty and may instead enrol as voluntary users, which binds them for the current and the following calendar year. The tax representative of a foreign person in Serbia carries the same issuing duty. Electronic VAT recording for transactions with no public sector party began on the same date.
B2G e-Invoicing in Serbia is mandatory since 1 May 2022. Under Article 24 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing , private sector suppliers have had to issue e-invoices to public bodies since 1 May 2022, the date public bodies also began receiving and storing them and invoicing each other. Public bodies had to start issuing to private suppliers on 1 July 2022. Any claim for payment that moves money to the claimant counts as an e-invoice. Public sector e-invoices are held permanently in SEF rather than for a fixed retention period.
Serbia supports the following e-Invoice formats: UBL 2.1 (XML).
Serbia uses the following e-Invoicing standards: EN 16931-1, SRPS EN 16931-1:2017. Archiving requirement: Article 15 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing holds e-invoices issued or received by a public body permanently in SEF, and sets 10 years from the end of the year of issue for private sector entities. Private sector copies sit either in SEF or in the system of an information intermediary engaged for storage, and pass to the Central Information Intermediary if that intermediary enters bankruptcy or liquidation. Authenticity of origin and integrity of content must hold from issue until the retention period ends, secured by issuing in the prescribed format and storing in a format fit for electronic retention. A printed copy made before the period expires stays authentic afterwards, and the same rules extend to other documents processed in SEF.
Centralised exchange with no pre-clearance. Article 5 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing makes SEF compulsory for public and private sector entities, which register for access and then send, receive, record and store through it, directly or through an information intermediary approved by the Ministry of Finance. SEF is run by the Central Information Intermediary, a unit inside the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry supervises the law under Article 16. Invoices are not authorised before issue, but Articles 4 and 4a require the issuer to record calculated VAT and the recipient to record input tax in the system after the tax period closes, and Article 5 makes SEF the place where the preliminary VAT return is compiled. Cross-border receipt is narrower: Article 6 lets SEF take invoices issued to the European standard directly only where a foreign issuer invoices a public body, with all other recipients relying on an information intermediary.
Serbia has penalties for e-Invoicing non-compliance. Failure to issue e-invoices or record VAT: Article 18 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing fines a legal person in the private sector, or a public enterprise, RSD 200,000 to RSD 2,000,000 for breaching the duty to issue an e-invoice, failing to declare or reconcile its subject status, failing to record VAT electronically, not using SEF as required, or using SEF data for purposes the law does not prescribe; Correction before supervision: A VAT recording error is treated as no offence where the taxpayer corrects it before supervision under Article 16 opens, a safe harbour added to Article 18 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing by Official Gazette 94/2024 and widened by 109/2025; Information intermediary endangering SEF: Article 19 of the Law on Electronic Invoicing fines an information intermediary RSD 200,000 to RSD 2,000,000 where its issuing, recording, processing, sending, receiving or storage services endanger the security or functioning of SEF, with RSD 50,000 to RSD 150,000 for its responsible person; and 1 more.
The next e-Invoicing deadline in Serbia is 1 January 2027: Preliminary VAT return applies. The preliminary VAT return compiled in SEF applies for tax periods beginning after 31 December 2026, after Official Gazette 109/2025 amended the transitional article of the 94/2024 amending law, per the Law on Electronic Invoicing.
Exemptions from Serbia e-Invoicing may apply to: Retail sales, Defence and security procurement, Electricity system transactions and free supplies. Check specific criteria as exemptions vary by transaction type and business size.