The legal side of renting your Belgrade apartment short-term
Four obligations decide whether a Belgrade short-term rental is legal: a categorization decision, registration in eTurista, the tourist tax, and lump-sum income tax. Most owners who get into trouble have done the first and skipped the fifth thing nobody mentions — registering each guest, every day.
Last reviewed August 2026 · Written for owners renting in Belgrade
This is orientation, not legal advice
Amounts, deadlines and procedures here are drawn from published Serbian sources and were accurate as far as we could establish at the date above. Rates in particular change by municipal decision and can move without much notice. Confirm the current figures with your municipality or an accountant before you file anything or price a booking around them.
1. Categorization
Categorization (kategorizacija) is the licence. Without it you are not a host in the eyes of Serbian law, you are someone renting a flat illegally — and the platform the booking arrives through makes no difference to that. It is granted by the local self-government unit for the municipality where the property sits. In Belgrade, that is the City Secretariat for Economy.
The governing texts are the Law on Hospitality (Zakon o ugostiteljstvu) and the regulation on categorization standards (Pravilnik o standardima za kategorizaciju ugostiteljskih objekata za smeštaj).
Get your eTurista credentials
Go in person to the tourism desk of the local self-government for the municipality your property sits in, with your ID. They issue the login you will use for everything that follows. In Belgrade the competent body is the City Secretariat for Economy.
File the categorization application
The application itself is submitted online through the eTurista portal. You attach proof of ownership, a copy of your ID, the receipt for the administrative fee, and three signed declarations — that the unit meets the minimum technical conditions, that it meets the standards for the category you are applying for, and that it meets sanitary and hygiene standards.
Pass the commission visit
A municipal categorization commission inspects the property against the standards regulation. Requirements are a mix of mandatory items you must have and optional items that earn points toward a higher star rating — floor area, bathroom fittings, equipment, and so on.
Receive the decision, then file your tax return
The decision is issued through eTurista and the unit is entered in the register automatically. From the date of the decision you have 15 days to file your tax return. Display the category plaque where the regulation requires it.
Register every guest, every day
From the first booking onward, each guest goes into eTurista. This is not optional and it is the obligation most often missed by owners who self-manage.
What it costs and how long it lasts
The administrative fee is around 1,140 dinars and varies by municipality. The decision is valid for three years, and renewal goes through the same process — start it roughly 60 days before expiry.
What happens if you skip it
Renting without a categorization decision carries fines of 150,000 to 350,000 dinars for an individual and 200,000 to 800,000 dinars for a legal entity. Failure to register guests in eTurista is a separate offence with its own penalty, so the two stack.
2. eTurista
eTurista is the central register, and it is the single system you will spend the most time in. It is where the categorization application is filed, where the unit lives once approved, where the tax assessment is calculated — and where every guest must be entered.
Guest registration is daily and it applies to everyone who sleeps in the unit, domestic or foreign. For foreign nationals it also discharges the obligation to register a foreigner's stay, which has a 24-hour deadline from arrival. This is the requirement owners most commonly overlook, usually because the first year passes without anyone checking.
If you self-manage, build the registration into your check-in routine rather than treating it as monthly admin. A guest who checked in on Friday night and left Sunday cannot be registered retroactively on Monday without the record showing exactly that.
3. Tourist tax
This is where most English-language explanations get it wrong, because there are two entirely different regimes and which one applies depends on what you are, not what you rent.
If you are an individual (domaća radinost)
You do not collect tourist tax (boravišna taksa) from guests per night. You are assessed a lump sum based on your number of beds and the category of the location. Belgrade is a Category I location, which puts it at the top of the national scale — on the order of 3,300 dinars per bed per year. A three-bed apartment lands around 9,900 dinars annually. You receive a decision stating the amount, the account and the reference number.
If you operate through a company
You charge the tax per guest per night — currently in the region of 160 dinars, though the Belgrade figure has been revised more than once and is worth confirming against the current city decision before you build it into your rates. It must be itemised separately on the invoice, collected at the same time as the accommodation payment, and remitted by the 5th of the following month. If you failed to collect it from the guest, you owe it yourself within 15 days.
4. Income tax
For individual hosts this is a lump-sum system (paušalno oporezivanje), which surprises people who expect to be taxed on what they actually earned. The rate is 20%, but it is applied to a calculated base derived from your number of beds and the previous year's national average salary — not to your revenue.
The practical consequence is worth sitting with: a well-run apartment at high occupancy and a barely-let one with the same bed count owe the same tax. Occupancy is pure upside against a fixed liability, which is a large part of why professional management pays for itself in Belgrade faster than it does in markets taxed on turnover.
Assessment is quarterly with a 15-day payment deadline from the end of each quarter. If you start mid-year you begin paying from the following quarter; if you stop, you pay through your last active quarter. Your first return is due within 15 days of the categorization decision.
The short version
Questions owners actually ask
Do I need categorization to rent my Belgrade apartment on Airbnb?
Yes. Renting out private accommodation in Serbia without a categorization decision from the local self-government is an offence under the Law on Hospitality, regardless of which platform the booking comes through. Fines for individuals run from 150,000 to 350,000 dinars; for legal entities, 200,000 to 800,000.
How long does categorization last?
Three years from the date of the decision. Renewal runs through the same process and should be started about 60 days before expiry, so leave yourself the margin.
How much does categorization cost?
The administrative fee is roughly 1,140 dinars, though it varies by municipality. The larger cost is usually bringing the unit up to the standards required for the category you want, not the fee itself.
How does an individual host pay the tourist tax in Belgrade?
Individuals registered under domaća radinost do not collect the tax per night from guests. They are assessed a lump sum based on the number of beds and the category of the location. Belgrade is a Category I location, which puts the rate at the top of the national range — around 3,300 dinars per bed per year. You receive a decision stating the amount, the account and the payment reference. Companies work differently: they charge the tax per guest per night, itemise it on the invoice and remit monthly.
How is income tax calculated on private accommodation?
For individual hosts it is a lump-sum system, not a percentage of what you actually earn. The rate is 20% applied to a base derived from your number of beds and the previous year's national average salary. It is assessed quarterly, with a 15-day payment deadline from the end of each quarter.
Do I have to register foreign guests separately with the police?
The obligation to register a foreign national's stay sits with the accommodation provider, and the deadline is short — within 24 hours of arrival. Registering the guest in eTurista is how that obligation is discharged; you no longer make a separate trip to a police counter. Confirm the current procedure with your municipality, since this is the area that has changed most in recent years.
Na srpskom
Za kratkoročno izdavanje stana u Beogradu potrebna su četiri koraka: rešenje o kategorizaciji od nadležne gradske uprave, evidentiranje objekta i svakodnevna prijava gostiju u sistemu eTurista, boravišna taksa (za fizička lica paušalno, po ležaju godišnje) i paušalni porez na prihod od ugostiteljskih usluga. Izdavanje bez kategorizacije kažnjava se novčano — za fizička lica od 150.000 do 350.000 dinara. Iznosi i rokovi se menjaju odlukama grada; proverite aktuelne podatke pre podnošenja.
We handle all of this for the properties we manage
Categorization paperwork, daily eTurista registration, tax deadlines — along with the listings, pricing, guests and cleaning. One fee of 20% on the income we collect, and nothing when the apartment is empty.