Montenegro: Business Environment

Accounting Rules

Tax Year: The tax year corresponds to the calendar year.
Accounting Standards: Montenegrin accounting is based on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Accounting Regulation Bodies: Council for Accounting and Auditing
Accounting Reports: Accounting structures must present balance sheets and profit and loss accounts.
Publication Requirements: According to the Law on accounting and audit, all legal entities must submit their financial statements annually. According to the Law on business organizations, joint stock companies must submit their financial report with the audit report. Only foreign companies do not have to submit a financial report.
Professional Accountancy Bodies: Association of Montenegrin accountants and auditors
Certification and Auditing: An audit may be performed by a person who is a certified accountant. You can contact the Association of Montenegrin accountants and auditors or an external auditor: Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Accounting News

Tax Rates

Consumption Taxes

Nature of the Tax: PDV (VAT)
Tax Rate: The standard rate is 21%
Reduced Tax Rate: Reduced PDV is 7% for certain products, including bread, milk, books, medicines, public transport, hotel and other tourist accommodation. From 2022, the 7% reduced rate also applies to the supply of services related to the preparation and serving of food and beverages (except alcoholic beverages, carbonated beverages with added sugar and coffee) in facilities for the provision of catering and accommodation services.
Certain product supplies are taxed at a 0% rate (e.g. export of goods, supply of gasoline for vessels in international traffic).
Exempt items include banking services and financial services; health care and health services; services regarding social security; educational services; religious services, goods provided by religious institutions or involved in religious ritual; radio broadcasting services; insurance services; entertainment games and chance games services.
Import of protective equipment and medical supplies donations is exempt from VAT (COVID-19 related measure).
Other Consumption Taxes: Excise duty are levied on alcohol and alcoholic beverages, tobacco products (including liquid for electronic cigarettes), mineral oils, coffee and coffee products, mineralised water with sugar or aroma.

Corporate Taxes

Company Tax

Progressive rates (9% to 15%)

Tax Rate For Foreign Companies

Resident entities are taxed on their worldwide income. Non-resident companies are taxed on their Montenegrin-sourced income or income attributed to their Montenegrin permanent establishment.
A company is considered tax resident if it is incorporated in Montenegro or if it has the place of effective management in the country.
A withholding tax applies to payments towards non-residents for dividends and profit distribution, capital gains, interest, royalties, intellectual property rights fees, rental income, fees for consulting, market research, and audit services, as well as to income earned on the basis of performing entertainment, artistic, sport, or similar programmes in Montenegro. The general rate is set at 15%.

Capital Gains Taxation

Capital gains are included in taxable income and taxed at the general rate of 15%. Gains may be offset against capital losses occurring in the same tax period. Capital losses may be carried forward for five years.

Main Allowable Deductions and Tax Credits

Deductions include depreciation (for tangible and intangible assets with a useful life of at least one year and an individual acquisition value of at least EUR 300), business-related interest expenses, bad debts, certain charitable contributions (up to a limit of 3.5% of total revenue), salary costs, severance payments related to the retirement of employees, entertainment expenses (up to 1% of total revenue), taxes, duly documented start-up expenses, membership fees paid to chambers of commerce and other associations (up to 0.1% of gross revenue unless the amount of the fees has been determined by law), etc.
Losses can be carried forward for five years, while the carryback of losses is not permitted.

Other Corporate Taxes

Other taxes include:

real property tax (at rates ranging from 0.25% to 1%)
transfer tax (payable on the acquisition of ownership rights over an immovable property at a rate of 3%)
social security contributions (8.3% divided as follows: pension 5.5%, health 2.3%, unemployment 0.5% - the maximum base for contributions being EUR 54,533 in 2022)
payroll tax (The municipal authorities impose a surtax of up to 15% on an employee’s salary. In addition, labor fund contributions are imposed on the gross salary at a rate of 0.2%)
environmental charges (i.e. dangerous waste, harmful substances, etc.).

Other Domestic Resources

Department of Public Revenues

Consult Doing Business website, to obtain a summary of the taxes and mandatory contributions.

Country Comparison For Corporate Taxation

	Montenegro	Eastern Europe & Central Asia	United States	Germany
Number of Payments of Taxes per Year	18.0	13.9	10.6	9.0
Time Taken For Administrative Formalities (Hours)	300.0	226.2	175.0	218.0
Total Share of Taxes (% of Profit)	22.2	36.5	36.6	48.8

Source: Doing Business - Latest available data.

Individual Taxes

Tax Rate

Individuals income tax	Progressive rates
Salaries	up to EUR 700 (gross): exempt; from EUR 701 up to EUR 1,000 (gross): 9%; from EUR 1,001 (gross): 15%
Income earned by entrepreneurs	from EUR 8,400.01 to EUR 12,000: 9%; from EUR 12,000.01: 15%
Surtax on income tax (paid to the municipality)	13% (15% in Podgorica and Cetinje)

Allowable Deductions and Tax Credits: No deductions are provided for individuals.
An individual who generates revenue from secondary self-employment activities can deduct 30% of the realised revenue from those other activities.
Special Expatriate Tax Regime: Residents are taxed on their worldwide income, regardless of the source. Non-residents are taxed only on Montenegro-source income.
An individual is considered resident for tax purposes if he/she: spends at least 183 days in a tax year in the country; has a domicile in Montenegro, or has the centre of personal and economic activities in Montenegro.
A 9% withholding tax is levied on dividends and royalties paid to non-resident individuals (5% for interests).

Double Taxation Treaties

Countries With Whom a Double Taxation Treaty Have Been Signed: See the list of double taxation prevention treaties signed by Montenegro.
Withholding Taxes: Dividends: 15%, Interest: 15%, Royalties: 15%

Sources of Fiscal Information

Tax Authorities: Overview of Montenegro's tax measures in response to Covid-19
Revenue and Customs Administration
Other Domestic Resources: Ministry of Finance

Intellectual Property

National Organisations: You can contact the Intellectual Property Office of Montenegro by Email.
Regional Organisations: GRAOVAC
International Membership: Signatory to the Paris Convention For the Protection of Intellectual Property
Membership to the TRIPS agreement - Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

National Regulation and International Agreements

Type of property and law	Validity	International Agreements Signed
Patent Patent Cooperation Treaty	20 years
Trademark Trademark Law Treaty	10 years, unlimited renewal	Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks
Design Industrial Designs	15 years
Copyright Berne Convention		WIPO Copyright Treaty
Industrial Models Industrial Designs	15 years

Legal Framework

Independence of Justice: The legal system is independent but there are still serious problems of corruption.
Equal Treatment of Nationals and Foreigners: In Law, the whole population is judged in an egalitarian way, but in reality there can be differences in treatment, especially for ethnic minorities.
The Language of Justice: The language used is Montenegrin.
Recourse to an Interpreter: You can easily have recourse to an interpreter in Montenegro for legal affairs.
Sources of the Law and Legal Similarities: Laws stem from the Constitution of Montenegro.
Checking National Laws Online: Laws of Montenegro

Standards

National Standards Organisations: ISME
Integration in the International Standards Network: The Institute for Standardization of Montenegro is Correspondent member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Affiliate member of European Committee for Standardization (CEN), Associate member of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and Affiliate member of European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC).
Classification of Standards: The Montenegrin standards are the MEST. For more information consult the ISME website.
Online Consultation of Standards: Montenegrin standards can be found on the catalogue of the ISME website.
Certification Organisations: Institute for Standardization of Montenegro

Business Practices

General Information: Worldwide tax
Opening Hours and Days: Shops are open from 7 am to 12 noon and from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday.
Banks are open from 8 am to 8 pm Monday to Friday and from 8 am to 3 pm on Saturday.
Opening hours vary for companies, but most companies are open from 8 am to 4 pm.

Public Holidays

New Year	1 and 2 January
Orthodox Christmas	7 and 8 January
Orthodox Easter	End of April - beginning of May
Labor Day	1 and 2 May
Montenegro Independence Day	21 May
National Day	13 July

Periods When Companies Usually Close

Christmas holidays	The first ten days of January
Easter	Two days

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