If your company is registered in Montenegro and holds, trades or takes payment in crypto-assets, the first thing to establish is which statute you file under. A company does not file under the personal income tax law, and the "15% on crypto" figure that circulates in English-language guides comes from that law, not yours. Your obligation sits in the Zakon o porezu na dobit pravnih lica — the corporate profit tax law — and the return, the balance sheet and the penalty exposure all attach to the company, not to whoever manages the wallet.
That distinction is not pedantry. It changes the rate, the moment of taxation, and — this is the part almost no one writes down — whether the gain is inside the tax base at all.
This piece is the tax layer of the same file we have been building since the crypto register opened: what the register is and who keeps it, what registration obliges you to do afterwards, how the Montenegrin regime differs from MiCA, and why the bank conversation takes months. Everything below was checked against primary text on 22 August 2026.
Start where the tax base starts: your own ledger
Montenegro does not compute corporate tax from a separate tax concept of income. It starts from your accounts and then adjusts.
Zakon o porezu na dobit pravnih lica (Sl. list RCG 65/01 … Sl. list CG 88/24 of 13.09.2024; consolidated text in force from 01.01.2025), član 7 stav 2: taxable profit is determined by adjusting the pre-tax profit shown in the profit and loss account prepared under the accounting rules — that is, under IAS/IFRS. Član 8 and član 10 then confirm that revenues and expenses are recognised in the amounts shown in that profit and loss account, except where the tax law prescribes something different.
And the accounting rules are not optional. Zakon o računovodstvu (Sl. list CG 145/21 of 31.12.2021, 152/22 of 30.12.2022), član 5: legal persons prepare financial statements under IAS/IFRS as issued by the IASB and published by the Ministry of Finance or the body entrusted with that task.
So the sequence is: IFRS decides what your crypto position looks like in the accounts → the accounts produce a pre-tax profit → the tax law adjusts that figure → the rate is applied. If you want to know your tax position, the first document to look at is not the tax code. It is your own accounting policy.
What IFRS says a token is
There is no crypto standard. There is an agenda decision, and it has been settled since June 2019.
The IFRS Interpretations Committee, Holdings of Cryptocurrencies (June 2019), concluded that a holding of cryptocurrency is not cash and not a financial asset — it gives no contractual right to receive cash and is not an equity instrument of another entity. It is an intangible asset under IAS 38, unless it is held for sale in the ordinary course of business, in which case IAS 2 Inventories applies. The Committee added a third case: an entity acting as a broker-trader considers IAS 2 paragraph 3(b), under which commodity broker-traders measure inventories at fair value less costs to sell.
Read that last sentence again with a tax hat on. Under IAS 38's cost model nothing hits your profit and loss account until you dispose (impairments aside). Under the broker-trader route, fair value movements go through profit and loss — and član 7 stav 2 starts from that profit and loss account. Nothing in the corporate tax law reverses unrealised fair-value gains back out.
| Your role | Likely IFRS treatment | What reaches the P&L before you sell |
|---|---|---|
| Company holding tokens on the balance sheet | IAS 38 intangible asset, cost model | Nothing, unless impaired |
| Company selling tokens in the ordinary course of business | IAS 2 inventories, cost or net realisable value | Write-downs only |
| Registered provider acting as a broker-trader | IAS 2 para 3(b), fair value less costs to sell | Fair value movements, both directions |
Two Montenegrin companies with identical wallets can therefore report different profits, lawfully, because they do different things. The tax follows the accounting choice, and the accounting choice follows what the business actually is — not what is convenient in March.
The rate, once you have a figure
Zakon o porezu na dobit pravnih lica, član 28: the rates are progressive.
| Taxable profit | Tax |
|---|---|
| Up to EUR 100,000.00 | 9% |
| EUR 100,000.01 to EUR 1,500,000.00 | EUR 9,000.00 plus 12% on the excess over EUR 100,000.01 |
| Over EUR 1,500,000.01 | EUR 177,000.00 plus 15% on the excess over EUR 1,500,000.01 |
These brackets replaced the old flat rate and are explained separately in what Montenegro's corporate tax rate really means. Note what they are applied to: total taxable profit, not a separate crypto pot.
The fork that decides everything — and it is genuinely open
Here is the part that is not in any guide we could find, and the reason this article exists.
Član 21 defines a capital gain as income realised on the sale or other transfer of land, buildings, property rights, shares in capital and securities. That is a closed list of named assets.
Član 9a then says that a capital gain from the sale or transfer of exactly those assets is excluded from the taxpayer's tax base.
Now put a token against that list. It is not land or a building. Under Montenegrin law it is not a security — the crypto register is kept under the anti-money-laundering statute (Zakon o sprječavanju pranja novca i finansiranja terorizma, član 40a stav 4), not the capital markets law, which is precisely why the Capital Market Authority registers providers rather than licensing instruments. That leaves one candidate: is a crypto-asset a property right (imovinsko pravo) within član 21?
The statute does not say. We found no published opinion of the Tax Administration or the Ministry of Finance answering it, and we are not going to invent one.
| If a token is a "property right" under član 21 | If it is not |
|---|---|
| The disposal is a capital gain | The gain is ordinary profit |
| Član 9a excludes it from the tax base | Član 7 stav 2 leaves it in the tax base |
| Losses follow član 22 stav 5 and 6: offset against capital gains in the same year, then carried forward five years | Losses follow član 25: ordinary loss carried forward up to five years |
| The gain sits outside the corporate tax base | The gain is taxed at the član 28 rates, 9% to 15% |
One more reason to settle it rather than assume it: widely used English-language summaries still describe Montenegrin corporate capital gains as taxable at the standard rates, which is the position that preceded the consolidated text now in force. If your adviser is working from one of those, the starting premise is already a version behind.
Both readings are arguable from the text. Only one of them is right for your company, and the taxpayer carrying the exposure if the Tax Administration takes the other view is you. This is the single question worth putting in writing to the tax authority before your first material disposal — not after it, and not in the covering note to a return you have already filed.
Be careful with the direction of that request, too. Asking "is our crypto gain exempt?" invites a short answer. Asking "which asset category in član 21 does this instrument fall into, and on what basis" produces something you can rely on.
Taking the money out
Whatever happens at the company level, the second layer is fixed and easy to get wrong.
Član 29 stav 1 tačka 1 requires withholding on dividends and profit shares paid to resident and non-resident legal persons alike; stav 4 sets the rate at 15% on the gross amount, calculated and paid at the moment of payment. Interest, royalties, capital gains, rent, consulting, market research and audit fees paid to a non-resident legal person are also caught by stav 1 tačka 2.
Three points that change plans:
- Član 9: dividends received from a payer that is itself subject to this law are excluded from the recipient's tax base. A Montenegrin holding structure does not stack corporate tax twice.
- Član 29 stav 5: the rate rises to 30% where the non-resident recipient is from a territory that both applies a lighter burden on corporate profit and dividends than Montenegro does, and does not exchange information with the Montenegrin tax authority. Stav 10 requires the Ministry to publish the list of such territories on its website — check the list against your actual shareholder chain rather than assuming. Stav 7 takes a recipient that is also treated as resident of a state Montenegro has a double tax treaty with out of that category (it disapplies the stav 6 definition).
- Član 29a: treaty relief is not automatic. The payer applies the treaty only if the non-resident proves residence with a certificate from the other state's authority and is the beneficial owner. Apply a treaty rate without that file and stav 3 makes the payer liable for the difference.
There is one more provision that catches crypto founders specifically. Član 28a imposes 15% withholding on payments made by the company to individuals by way of a loan, with or without interest, and on extensions of the repayment period — with an exemption only for loans up to EUR 5,000 per year to a person who is not a related party under član 38. Founders who fund and defund the company through informal personal loans should read that article before the next transfer.
The parts that are still open, and the ones with dates on them
VAT. Zakon o porezu na dodatu vrijednost, član 27, exempts a closed list: insurance, certain real estate, long residential leases, and banking and financial services enumerated in točka 4 — credit, deposits and payment operations, currency and coins that are legal tender in a state, and dealings in shares, bonds and other securities. Crypto is not named in that list, and neither of the two candidate limbs obviously reaches it. The EU answer — the Court of Justice in Skatteverket v Hedqvist, C-264/14, judgment of 22 October 2015, holding that exchanging traditional currency for bitcoin falls within the currency exemption — is not binding in Montenegro. Also note the currency of your source: the VAT law was amended by Sl. list CG 12/26 of 6 February 2026, which reorganised the place-of-supply rules into separate articles for B2B and B2C supplies and tightened the rules on appointing a VAT representative for non-residents. Any consolidation printed before February 2026 is the wrong text.
Individuals. The 15% figure that circulates for "crypto tax in Montenegro" belongs to the personal income tax law and to natural persons. The structural point worth carrying across is that that statute defines capital gains the same way — by a closed list of named assets: real estate, a share in a legal person, and securities (Zakon o porezu na dohodak fizičkih lica, član 37a). We flag one honesty caveat there: the consolidated personal income tax text we could open online carries amendments only to Sl. list CG 79/15 and therefore predates the 2021 reform, so treat the rate and the article number in that statute as needing confirmation. The structural point does not depend on either. Neither statute names tokens. That is a drafting gap, not a concession, and it will be closed at some point.
Very large groups. Montenegro adopted a global minimum tax law published in Sl. list CG 33/26 in March 2026, imposing a 15% minimum effective level of taxation on groups with consolidated revenue of at least EUR 750 million. Almost no crypto company registered in Montenegro today is near that threshold; if yours is part of a group that is, this is a separate workstream.
Filing, and what non-compliance costs
Član 39: the tax period is the financial year, normally the calendar year. Član 40 stav 3: the return is filed and the tax paid within three months of the end of the period. Stav 4: the profit and loss account and balance sheet prepared under the accounting law go with it. Stav 6: filing is electronic. For withholding, član 29 stav 11 and član 28a stav 3 require a report by the end of February for the preceding year.
Član 42a sets fines of EUR 1,000 to EUR 20,000 for a legal person and EUR 500 to EUR 2,000 for the responsible person for, among other things, failing to calculate or pay withholding tax correctly, failing to file within the three-month window, and failing to submit transfer pricing documentation. On that last point: if tokens move between group companies, član 38c documentation is in play, and the transitional član 44b sets a 30 June deadline for that documentation until 2027.
What to do before your next disposal
If you operate a registered or soon-to-be-registered crypto business in Montenegro, three things are worth settling while they are still cheap: the accounting classification of your holdings and the policy note that supports it; a written position from the tax authority on which limb of član 21 the instrument falls into; and a check of your shareholder chain against the Ministry's published territory list before the first dividend.
If your company is at that point, send us the accounting policy, the shareholder chain and the proposed distribution before the transaction, not after — the analysis is the same either way, and only one order of operations leaves you room to act on it. Our fintech and crypto work is described on the fintech and crypto services page, and you can reach us through the contact page.
