Serbia's vehicle-use tax in 2026: amounts, reductions, hybrids

The vehicle-use tax is a state tax paid for one year at every registration in Serbia, the first one included, and a car cannot be registered without proof of it. In 2026 the full amount runs from 1,910 RSD, for a car up to 1,150 cm³, to 349,560 RSD, for one over 3,000 cm³. A car over 5 years old pays 15% to 65% less, and one 20 years or older pays 20% of the full amount. Cars with an electric drive, hybrids included, pay nothing.

The amounts in 2026

The tax depends on engine size, in seven bands for passenger cars (Law on Taxes on Use, Holding and Carrying of Goods, article 4). The 2026 amounts were published in Službeni glasnik RS 118/2025 and apply from 1 January 2026. Watch the step at 2,000 cm³: a car just under it pays 16,890 RSD at the full rate, and one just over it 83,470 RSD, almost five times as much.

The tax goes to the state budget, not to the municipality (article 1a); the municipal tax, paid at the same registration, is a separate levy with its own page. Every December the amounts for the following year are adjusted by the consumer price index of the previous 12 months (article 27a), so the 2027 amounts are expected in December 2026. The table below gives the full amount and what is left after each age reduction.

Vehicle-use tax by engine size and age, RSD per year

Engine size	Up to 5 years	6 to 8 years	9 or 10 years	11 to 19 years	20 years and older
up to 1,150 cm³	1,910	1,624	1,433	1,146	382
1,151 to 1,300 cm³	3,740	3,179	2,805	2,244	748
1,301 to 1,600 cm³	8,230	6,996	6,173	4,938	1,646
1,601 to 2,000 cm³	16,890	14,357	12,668	10,134	3,378
2,001 to 2,500 cm³	83,470	62,603	50,082	29,214	16,694
2,501 to 3,000 cm³	169,120	126,840	101,472	59,192	33,824
over 3,000 cm³	349,560	262,170	209,736	122,346	69,912

Cars with an electric drive, hybrids included, are exempt. The amounts are those of the consolidated law as last adjusted for 2026 (Službeni glasnik RS 118/2025).

Reductions by age

A car over 5 full years old pays less, and a car with an engine over 2,000 cm³ gets a bigger reduction (article 4):

over 5 up to 8 full years: 15% off, or 25% over 2,000 cm³;
over 8 up to 10 full years: 25% off, or 40%;
over 10 full years: 40% off, or 65%;
20 years or more: 20% of the full amount, whatever the engine size.

The MUP table that its website still links to gives the amounts as of 1 January 2021 and groups cars by year of manufacture, which means age is counted as the registration year minus the year of manufacture. No newer MUP table was found, so it is not confirmed that MUP still counts age this way in 2026. Read that way, in 2026 a car built in 2021 or later pays in full, one built from 2018 to 2020 gets the first reduction, 2016 or 2017 the second, 2007 to 2015 the third, and one built in 2006 or earlier pays 20% of the full amount. The year of manufacture can be earlier than the year of first registration in the German registration documents. The calculator counts age the same way, from the year you enter.

Electric cars and hybrids are exempt

Owners of cars with only an electric drive, and of hybrids, where one of the drives is electric, do not pay the tax (article 5, item 6). The law makes no distinction between plug-in and full hybrids, and the exemption applies at every registration, so the saving repeats each year. Whether a mild hybrid counts is not confirmed: none of the texts searched (the use-tax law, the Road Traffic Safety Law and the registration and vehicle-classification rulebooks) defines a hybrid, and no official text found settles it, so ask MUP before a purchase that depends on it.

The law also exempts:

a person with a disability whose physical impairment is 80% or more, or whose lower limbs are 60% or more impaired, for one car: the first one registered in their name in the year;
the legal representatives of children with multiple disabilities, on the same terms;
public health institutions for ambulances, organisations of persons with disabilities for vehicles adapted only for carrying their members, and MUP.

The proof for these persons and representatives is issued by the competent authorities, for the year of registration.

When and how it is paid

The tax is paid for one year each time a saobraćajna dozvola or a registration sticker is issued (articles 2 and 4), so at the first registration and at every yearly renewal, but not for a temporary registration shorter than a year. It is owed by the person or company in whose name the car is registered (article 3).

The taxpayer works out the tax and pays it into the public-revenue account 840-714511843-87, and proof of payment goes with the registration request (article 5b); the car cannot be registered without it (article 6). Who takes the payment in practice (a bank, the inspection station or an agency), and whether the single eUprava payment slip includes this tax, was not confirmed.

An imported car that is not exempt pays at its first registration in Serbia: the rule that spares the buyer of a car already registered in Serbia until that registration runs out (article 5a) does not apply to it. Tax paid is not refunded if the car is sold, deregistered or destroyed before the registration expires (article 5a).

Common mistakes

"Cars five to eight years old get a 25% reduction." Up to 2,000 cm³ it is 15%; 25% applies only above 2,000 cm³.
"Cars older than 10 years pay only 60% of the base amount, a 40% reduction." That holds up to 2,000 cm³; above it they pay 35%, and from 20 years every car pays 20%.
"Cars older than 15 years get the biggest reduction." Nothing changes at 15: the steps are over 5, over 8 and over 10 full years, and then 20 years.
"Cars older than 20 years are usually exempt." No age exempts a car: from 20 years it pays 20% of the full amount.
"Mild hybrids are exempt too." No official text found says so or rules it out; the law asks only that one of the drives be electric.
"A hybrid's registration can be renewed only at a police station." No such rule was found: under the registration rulebook an inspection station authorised by MUP may issue the sticker for a car already in the register (article 60), and the rulebook makes no exception for hybrids.

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Sources

The official laws, decisions and pages this guide rests on, read on 23/09/2026. Rules and amounts change, so check the ones that matter to you before you buy.