Serbia's 183-Day Tax Residency Rule
Spending 183 days or more in Serbia during any rolling 12-month period makes you a Serbian tax resident. Here is exactly how the count works.
Last verified: July 2026
In short: you become a Serbian tax resident if you spend 183 days or more in Serbia during any 12-month window that begins or ends in the tax year. Any part of a day counts as a full day, so arrival and departure days both count. Time spent purely in transit does not count. A Serbian home or centre of vital interests is a separate route in, even below 183 days.
- Threshold
- 183 days or more
- Counting window
- Any rolling 12 months
- A day counts if
- You are present for any part of it
- Other residence test
- Domicile or centre of vital interests
- Tax year
- Calendar year
- Legal basis
- Personal Income Tax Law, Art. 7
The rule
Serbia treats you as a tax resident if you are present in the country for 183 days or more, continuously or with breaks, within a 12-month period that begins or ends in the relevant tax year. Three points decide most real cases:
- The window rolls. The 183 days are measured across any 12-month period that begins or ends in the tax year, not simply 1 January to 31 December. Two stays in different calendar years can combine inside one window.
- Any part of a day counts. Being present for any part of a day counts as a full day, so both your arrival and departure days count. Presence can be continuous or spread across several breaks.
- Transit does not count. Time spent purely in transit through Serbia is excluded from the day count.
How to count it
- List every Serbia trip with arrival and departure dates.
- Count each day on which you were present for any part of the day, including arrival and departure days. Leave out days spent purely in transit.
- Total the days inside a single 12-month window, then slide that window across your travel history, checking each window that begins or ends in the tax year.
- If any 12-month window reaches 183 days or more, the day-count test is met.
Example. 95 days in Serbia from September to December of one year, then 90 more from January to April of the next.
No single calendar year hits 183. But both stays sit in the same rolling window (September to the following September, which ends in the second tax year) and total 185 days, so the test is met.
Beyond the day count
The 183-day count is one route in, not the only one. Serbia can also treat you as resident, regardless of days, if you have your domicile or permanent residence (prebivalište) in Serbia, or if your centre of business and vital or life interests is in Serbia. Either of these alone can make you resident with zero days spent in the country. And if another country also claims you, a double-tax treaty decides residency through tie-breaker rules such as permanent home and centre of vital interests.
Official source: Article 7 of the Personal Income Tax Law (Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana), hosted by the Serbian Tax Administration (Poreska uprava).
AtlasDays tracks Serbia's 183-day rule automatically
Log your trips once. AtlasDays counts every rolling 12-month window for you, privately on your iPhone, and warns you before you reach 183 days.
Get AtlasDays on the App StoreFAQ
How many days can you stay in Serbia without becoming a tax resident?
Up to 182 days in any 12-month window. Reach 183 days or more in a window that begins or ends in the tax year and the day-count test is met.
Is Serbia's rule based on the calendar year?
No. It uses a rolling 12-month window that begins or ends in the tax year, so a stay split across two years can still cross the line.
Do transit days count?
No. Time spent purely in transit through Serbia does not count, though for any other day being present for any part of it counts as a full day.