How vat / sales tax works in Croatia
Croatian VAT defaults to 25%, with 13% on restaurants, hotels, food, and press and 5% on basic staples, books, medicines, and cultural services.
Traders file monthly or quarterly by turnover, issue fiscalised receipts with real-time reporting for cash sales, and run e-invoicing for B2B and public procurement.
Exports zero-rate, financial, health, and education supplies are largely exempt, and EU distance sellers route through OSS past the union threshold.
Tax rates at a glance
- Standard VAT
- 25%
- Reduced VAT
- 13% / 5%
- Restaurants and stays
- 13%
- Staples and books
- 5%
- Exports
- 0%
- Cash reporting
- Real-time
Who benefits most
These profiles tend to benefit most when the rules match their real residence, payroll and business setup.
E-commerce sellersHospitality operatorsFreelancersExpatsCross-border traders
Watch out for
- Tourism-season volumes multiply classification errors: food at 13% against alcohol at 25% and stays at 13% need POS-level rate mapping before summer.
- Fiscalisation makes cash sales visible in real time, so unreported turnover surfaces by construction rather than by audit.
- Exempt health, finance, and education supplies block input recovery, repricing mixed contracting against taxable competitors.
- Euro changeover-era templates still circulate with kuna-era logic, so legacy documents need revalidation, not reuse.
Frequently asked questions
What is the VAT rate in Croatia?
Croatia applies 25% standard VAT in 2026, with 13% for restaurants, hotels, food, and press and 5% for staples, books, and medicines.
What is fiscalisation in Croatia?
Real-time reporting of cash-register receipts to the Tax Administration, mandatory for cash sales. E-invoicing extends similar discipline to B2B flows.
How often are Croatian VAT returns filed?
Monthly or quarterly by turnover size, with fiscalised data feeding assessments continuously between filings.