6 Million vs 8 Million: The Complete Guide to Serbian Paušal Revenue Limits

Last updated: August 2026. This guide reflects current legislation including the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana ("Sl. glasnik RS", br. 24/2001, consolidated through br. 6/2026) and the Zakon o PDV ("Sl. glasnik RS", br. 84/2004, with amendments).

If you're a Serbian paušalac — or thinking about becoming one — there are two numbers you should know well: 6,000,000 and 8,000,000. These are the revenue thresholds that determine whether you keep your lump-sum tax status, and they work in completely different ways. Confusing them is the single most common mistake paušalci make, and the consequences range from losing your favorable tax treatment to owing retroactive VAT on months of revenue.

This guide explains both limits in plain language, shows exactly how each one is calculated, walks through real scenarios, and tells you what happens if you cross either threshold.

The short version

Serbia's lump-sum taxation system (paušalno oporezivanje) has two independent revenue caps governed by two separate laws:

Limit 1 — 6,000,000 RSD per calendar year. If your total revenue from January 1 to December 31 exceeds this amount, you lose paušal status and must switch to full bookkeeping (knjigaš) starting from the next applicable period. This is governed by Article 40 of the Income Tax Law.

Limit 2 — 8,000,000 RSD in any rolling 12-month period. If your total revenue in any consecutive 365-day window exceeds this amount, you must register for PDV (VAT). VAT registration automatically ends your paušal status. This is governed by Article 33 of the VAT Law.

Limit 1: The 6-million calendar year threshold

What it means

The Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana (Income Tax Law), Article 40, paragraph 2, point 4, states that lump-sum taxation cannot be recognized for a taxpayer whose total turnover in the preceding year exceeds 6,000,000 RSD (approximately €51,000 at current exchange rates).

This limit is measured on a strict calendar-year basis: January 1 through December 31.

How revenue is counted

This is where most confusion starts. Revenue counts based on the date of service delivery or invoice issuance (datum prometa / datum izdavanja fakture), not the date payment lands in your bank account.

Here's what that means in practice:

• You perform consulting work in December 2025 and issue an invoice dated December 28, 2025
• Your client pays you on January 15, 2026
• That revenue counts toward your 2025 total, not 2026

The official record is your KPO knjiga (Book of Realized Turnover), where you record each invoice chronologically by service date. The Tax Authority will use your KPO entries — not your bank statements — to verify compliance.

Foreign currency invoices

If you invoice in EUR, USD, or any other foreign currency, what counts toward the 6-million limit is the dinar amount converted at the NBS official middle rate (zvanični srednji kurs Narodne banke Srbije). The type of rate is prescribed: ZDP čl. 41 st. 2 — "Za potrebe knjigovodstva i statistike primenjuje se zvanični srednji kurs dinara." Applying the buying rate, the selling rate or the rate your bank used is a prekršaj, and for a preduzetnik it carries 150,000 to 500,000 RSD (ZDP čl. 61 t. 37).

Which date's rate applies is prescribed nowhere for a paušalac outside the VAT system. ZPDV čl. 22 fixes the conversion date for the VAT base and binds VAT payers; the Zakon o računovodstvu defines preduzetnici as those keeping double-entry books (čl. 2 t. 3), which a paušalac does not; the KPO pravilnik prescribes the columns and no conversion rule at all. The invoice date — or the supply date where the two differ — is settled practice, not a rule. Pick one basis and apply it to every invoice. The full argument is in foreign currency inflows.

For example: you issue an invoice for €3,000 on March 15, and the NBS middle rate that day is 117.20 RSD/EUR. Your KPO entry — and your limit calculation — records 351,600 RSD.

The actual amount your bank credits after conversion (which uses the bank's own, less favorable rate) is irrelevant for limit purposes.

What happens if you exceed 6 million

The consequences depend on when in the year you cross the threshold:

If you exceed 6M in the first half of the year (January–June): The Tax Authority issues a decision requiring you to switch to full bookkeeping (knjigaš) starting from July 1 of that year.

If you exceed 6M in the second half (July–December): The obligation to switch starts January 1 of the following year.

In both cases, you can apply to return to paušal status if your revenue drops below 6 million in a subsequent calendar year. The application must be filed by October 31 of the year before you want to switch back.

Limit 2: The 8-million rolling 12-month threshold

What it means

The Zakon o porezu na dodatu vrednost (VAT Law), Article 33, defines a "mali obveznik" (small taxpayer) as one whose total turnover in the previous 12 months does not exceed 8,000,000 RSD (approximately €68,000).

The moment your rolling 12-month revenue crosses 8 million, you are no longer a "small taxpayer" and must register for PDV (VAT).

The rolling window is the key difference

Unlike the 6-million limit, the 8-million threshold doesn't care about calendar years. It looks at a continuous 365-day window ending today.

On any given day, the question is: "What was my total revenue over the preceding 365 days?" If the answer exceeds 8 million, the VAT obligation is triggered — regardless of how that revenue falls across calendar years.

This creates a scenario that catches many paušalci off guard:

Example: You earn 5,500,000 RSD from July to December 2025, then 4,000,000 RSD from January to June 2026. Neither calendar year exceeds 6 million. But the rolling 12-month total from July 2025 through June 2026 is 9,500,000 RSD — well over the 8-million PDV threshold.

The foreign-services exception

For paušalci who provide services exclusively to foreign clients, there's an important nuance: that revenue generally does not count toward the 8-million threshold.

Two provisions produce the result. ZPDV čl. 33 st. 6 limits ukupan promet for the threshold to the supplies in čl. 28 st. 1 t. 1) and t. 2) — those taxed in Serbia and those exempt with the right to deduct — and leaves out t. 3), a supply performed abroad. ZPDV čl. 12 st. 4 puts the place of supply of a service to a business client in the country where that client is established.

If you're a software developer in Belgrade building an app for a German company, that service is supplied in Germany, not in Serbia, so it falls into t. 3) and drops out of the count. Such revenue enters your 6-million paušal calculation but generally does not count toward the 8-million PDV threshold. Čl. 12 sets special rules for particular categories of service, so check an unusual one rather than assuming.

What happens if you exceed 8 million

The consequences are more severe and more immediate than the 6-million breach:

1. VAT registration becomes mandatory from the next day. You must file the EPPDV registration form within 5 days — calendar days, not working days (ZPDV čl. 38 st. 1).
2. Paušal status is terminated immediately. Unlike the 6-million threshold (which has H1/H2 transitional periods), the 8-million breach means instant loss of lump-sum taxation.
3. You owe VAT retroactively from the date the threshold was exceeded, but without the right to deduct input VAT for that retroactive period — a severe penalty.
4. If you fail to self-register, the Tax Authority can perform compulsory registration and assess additional penalties.

This is why the 8-million limit is often considered more dangerous than the 6-million limit. The 6-million breach is inconvenient (you switch to bookkeeping); the 8-million breach is financially punishing.

How the two limits interact — four scenarios

To make this concrete, here are four scenarios showing how the limits interact:

Scenario A: Safe on both

You earn 450,000 RSD per month consistently throughout 2025. Your calendar-year total is 5,400,000 (under 6M). Your rolling 12-month total is also 5,400,000 at any point (under 8M). You're safe on both counts.

Scenario B: Exceed calendar year, safe on rolling

You receive several large projects and earn 6,500,000 RSD between January and December 2025, but with most revenue concentrated in the summer. If your rolling 12-month total never exceeds 8M on any given day, you lose paušal status (switch to bookkeeping in H1 or H2 depending on timing) but don't need to register for VAT.

Scenario C: Safe on calendar year, exceed rolling 12 months

You earn 5,900,000 RSD in calendar year 2025 (under 6M) and 5,900,000 in 2026 (also under 6M). But from August 2025 to July 2026, your 12-month total is 8,200,000. You must register for VAT, which also terminates your paušal status — even though you never exceeded 6M in any single calendar year.

Scenario D: Exceed both

You earn 7,000,000 RSD in calendar year 2025. You've exceeded the 6-million paušal limit (switch to bookkeeping). If at any point your rolling 12-month total also exceeds 8 million, you must also register for VAT. Both consequences apply independently.

How to track your limits effectively

Given the different calculation windows, tracking both limits requires slightly different approaches:

For the 6-million calendar year limit: Sum all your invoice amounts (converted to RSD at the NBS middle rate — the rate type is prescribed, the date is whichever convention you apply consistently) with service dates in the current year. Reset on January 1.

For the 8-million rolling 12-month limit: At any point, sum all invoice amounts with service dates in the preceding 365 days. This number changes every day as old invoices roll out of the window and new ones enter.

Doing this manually in a spreadsheet is error-prone — you need to recalculate the rolling total after every invoice and remember to use the correct exchange rates.

Warning thresholds

Don't wait until you're at 5,900,000 to start worrying. Practical warning levels:

6-million calendar year:

• Yellow zone (4,000,000–5,000,000): Start planning. Can you defer some invoicing to next year?
• Orange zone (5,000,000–5,500,000): Active risk. Every new invoice matters.
• Red zone (5,500,000+): Consider engaging an accountant to prepare for potential knjigaš transition.

8-million rolling 12 months:

• Yellow zone (6,000,000–7,000,000): Monitor monthly.
• Orange zone (7,000,000–7,500,000): Monitor weekly.
• Red zone (7,500,000+): Consider voluntary VAT registration (to control timing) or restructuring your business.

Common misconceptions

"The limit is based on money received in my bank account." No. It's based on invoices issued / services delivered. A December invoice paid in January counts in December.

"I can issue invoices in EUR and only the dinars I actually receive count." No. The whole invoiced amount counts, converted at the NBS official middle rate (ZDP čl. 41 st. 2). Which date's rate you use is not prescribed for a paušalac outside the VAT system — the invoice date, or the supply date where the two differ, applied consistently, is settled practice.

"If I work only for foreign clients, the 8-million limit doesn't apply to me." Partially true — if the place of supply is abroad, those services may not count toward the 8M PDV threshold. But they always count toward the 6M paušal threshold.

"If I exceed 6 million, I automatically go into PDV." No. Exceeding 6M triggers bookkeeping obligations. PDV registration is triggered only by exceeding 8M (rolling) or by voluntary registration.

"I can just split invoices across years to stay under the limit." Risky. The Tax Authority looks at the actual service delivery date (datum prometa), not when you choose to issue the invoice. Artificially delaying invoices for services already rendered can constitute tax evasion.

Key takeaways

1. Two separate limits, two separate laws, two separate calculation windows. Don't conflate them.
2. 6M is calendar year, 6M is about bookkeeping. Exceed it and you become a knjigaš. Inconvenient but manageable.
3. 8M is rolling 12 months, 8M is about VAT. Exceed it and you owe retroactive VAT without input deductions. Financially severe.
4. Both count from invoice/service date, not payment date. Your KPO knjiga is the source of truth.
5. Foreign-currency invoices convert at the NBS official middle rate (ZDP čl. 41 st. 2). The rate date is not prescribed for a paušalac outside the VAT system — use the invoice date or the supply date, and use the same one every time.
6. Track both limits continuously. The rolling 12-month calculation changes daily and can sneak up on you even when calendar-year revenue looks safe.
7. When in doubt, consult a Serbian tax advisor. This guide explains the general rules, but individual situations — especially around the foreign-services PDV exemption — require professional assessment.