Serbia

United States (US) Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)

FATCA is a set of regulations of the United States adopted in order to combat tax evasion. It requires that foreign financial institutions or other financial intermediaries participate in preventing tax evasion by reporting (i.e. providing) information concerning US 'account holders', which include bank account holders, investors, and shareholders, to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The Republic of Serbia and the United States have begun active cooperation in relation to the implementation of FATCA regulation as of 2014. In accordance with the above-mentioned cooperation, as of 30 June 2014, Serbia has been treated as a jurisdiction with an 'agreement in substance' on the terms of an intergovernmental agreement (IGA), that is the United States had treated Serbia as the jurisdiction in which the Agreement was in force.

As a result of the cooperation, on 10 April 2019, the government of the Republic of Serbia and the United States signed an IGA to implement FATCA regulation. Serbia signed a Model 1 IGA to implement FATCA. 

Serbian Parliament adopted the Law Ratifying this IGA on 23 December 2019 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia - International Agreements, No 16 оf 27 December 2019).

Multilateral instrument (MLI)

On 5 June 2018, Serbia deposited its ratification instrument for the OECD Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting ('Multilateral instrument' or 'MLI').

The MLI enables jurisdictions to swiftly implement the results of the BEPS project into bilateral tax treaties worldwide. It modifies the application of thousands bilateral tax treaties concluded to eliminate double taxation.

Serbia is the sixth jurisdiction to deposit its ratification instrument after Austria, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Poland, and Slovenia. The MLI entered into force on 1 October 2018 for Serbia.

Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

Serbia joined the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in March 2018, thus committing to implement the standard of transparency and exchange of information in international tax affairs.

At the end of the year 2023, the OECD’s Global Forum published a second-round peer review report on Serbia’s implementation of the standard on transparency and exchange of information.