Polovnjak.net

Vehicle-use tax in Republika Srpska: amounts and age reduction

Republika Srpska charges the vehicle-use tax at every registration, including the first registration of an imported car, and a car cannot be registered without proof of payment. The amount depends on engine size and runs from 30 KM, for engines up to 1,150 cm³, to 1,000 KM, for engines above 3,000 cm³; a car over 1,600 up to 2,000 cm³ pays 75 KM. The tax falls by 5% for each full year of the car's age, by at most 50%, so a car 10 or more years old pays half. The law has no exemption for electric cars or hybrids, and what an electric car pays, since it has no engine displacement, is not confirmed.

Amounts by engine size

The tax depends on the engine's displacement (Zakon o porezima na upotrebu, držanje i nošenje dobara, article 4) and is paid as a yearly amount at registration (Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske 11/19, point 2). The amounts for passenger cars and vans, in force since 7 January 2016 (Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske 110/15):

  • up to 1,150 cm³: 30 KM
  • over 1,150 up to 1,300 cm³: 40 KM
  • over 1,300 up to 1,600 cm³: 50 KM
  • over 1,600 up to 2,000 cm³: 75 KM
  • over 2,000 up to 2,500 cm³: 200 KM
  • over 2,500 up to 3,000 cm³: 650 KM
  • over 3,000 cm³: 1,000 KM

Watch the step at 2,000 cm³: before any reduction a car with a 1,968 cm³ engine pays 75 KM, and one with a 2,143 cm³ engine 200 KM. From 27 June 2014 to 6 January 2016 the amounts were higher, 45 to 1,300 KM.

Reduction by age

The tax falls by 5% for each full year of the car's age, and the total reduction cannot exceed 50% (article 4, as worded in Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske 52/14). A car 10 or more full years old therefore pays half. For example:

  • 1,598 cm³, 10 years: 25.00 KM
  • 1,968 cm³, 5 years: 56.25 KM
  • 1,968 cm³, 8 years: 45.00 KM
  • 2,993 cm³, 10 years: 325.00 KM

The law does not say whether age runs from the year of manufacture or from the first registration, and no official interpretation was found. The calculator counts age as 2026 minus the year of manufacture you enter; for a car made late in the year that can be one year more than it has completed, so the calculator's tax can be too low by 5% of the full amount.

Who pays nothing or half

Exempt from the tax (article 5):

  • ambulances of health institutions, vehicles carrying patients on dialysis and blood transfusion service vehicles
  • vehicles adapted to the needs of drivers with disabilities

Taxis, rental cars and driving-school cars with dual controls pay 50%. There is no exemption or reduction for electric cars or hybrids.

Electric cars and hybrids

The tax is set by engine displacement (article 4), and the law has no band and no exemption for an electric car, which has no displacement. What MUP and the Tax Administration charge for one in practice is not confirmed; the calculator gives an electric car the lowest band, 30 KM less the age reduction, which is only an assumption. A hybrid presumably pays by the displacement of its petrol or diesel engine, which is how the calculator counts it, but that is not confirmed either. If your purchase depends on it, ask the Tax Administration of Republika Srpska (Poreska uprava) or MUP first.

When and how it is paid

The tax is paid at registration, at each extension of registration and when plates are replaced (article 2), so for an imported car it is paid at its first registration in Republika Srpska and then every year. It is owed by the person in whose name the car is registered (article 3), and a car cannot be registered, nor its registration extended, without proof of payment (article 6).

It is paid into the public revenue account of Republika Srpska under revenue type 714911. The Minister of Finance's instruction on this tax provides for a tax return only for registered weapons (Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske 11/19), so for a car you file no return and simply pay. The Tax Administration publishes the public revenue accounts of Republika Srpska, one per bank; which one to use, and the other details for the payment slip, were not confirmed here, so ask MUP.

The tax in Serbia and in the Federation of BiH

Serbia has a law of the same name, Zakon o porezima na upotrebu, držanje i nošenje dobara, but with its own amounts, in dinars, and an exemption for electric cars and hybrids; figures from sites in Serbia do not apply in Republika Srpska. Republika Srpska's law applies only on its own territory; in the Federation of BiH each canton taxes cars under its own law, and that tax is paid at registration. Municipalities in Republika Srpska charge no tax for keeping a car: they may set a municipal tax on vehicles only for parking in designated, marked places (Zakon o komunalnim taksama, Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske 4/12, 123/20 and 119/21, article 3).

Common mistakes

  • "In Republika Srpska an environmental fee based on engine power is paid instead of a vehicle tax." Republika Srpska charges this tax, 30 to 1,000 KM by engine size. The environmental fee is a separate charge that depends on fuel, engine size and Euro class, not on power.
  • "The main difference is that Republika Srpska charges a road fee, while the Federation of BiH also has a cantonal vehicle tax." Republika Srpska has a yearly vehicle tax too, paid at the same registration.
  • "The tax is 15 KM (up to 1,000 cm³) to 325 KM (over 2,500 cm³), times an age factor from 2.0 for a new car to 1.0 over 10 years." The law's bands differ for small engines (30 KM up to 1,150 cm³, 40 KM up to 1,300 cm³), and a car over 3,000 cm³ pays 1,000 KM before the age reduction, not 650 KM. The age factor itself comes to the same as the law's 5% a year, at most 50%.
  • "Electric vehicles are exempt from the tax." Republika Srpska's law has no such exemption (Serbia's law of the same name has one); what an electric car pays in practice is not confirmed.

This step of the import

Work out the whole cost

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.