Position dated 5 September 2026. Status: In force. Instruments: Pravilnik o bližem načinu pružanja uzajamne pomoći u naplati potraživanja, Official Gazette of Montenegro 118/2026, published 7 August 2026, in force 15 August 2026, made under Article 16f(4) of the tax procedure act; and Articles 18 and 20 of the amending law in Gazette 104/2026, which rewrite the enforcement and interest provisions of that act.
If you own property in Montenegro and owe tax somewhere else, the question has always had a short answer: the other state's revenue authority cannot reach across the border for it. That answer is now less stable than it was, and the reason is not one instrument but two moving in opposite directions.
What the rulebook lets a foreign authority ask for
Article 2 opens the door widely. Assistance covers taxes, customs duties, levies and other charges collected by an EU member state, by its regional or local units, on behalf of the European Union, or by another state; agricultural fund refunds and intervention payments; administrative charges for certificates issued in tax and customs proceedings; fines relating to the assessment and collection of those claims; and the interest and costs on all of it. Excluded are compulsory social insurance contributions, contractual consideration, and criminal fines other than the ones just named.
The forms of help are four. Supplying information and taking every official step needed to gather it. Allowing the requesting state's officials to be present at the tax authority's premises, to take part in administrative checks in Montenegro, including by electronic means, and to assist in court proceedings — where those officials may interview the persons being checked and inspect records. Serving documents, judicial documents included. And taking enforcement measures under Montenegro's own enforcement law.
One provision deserves a note of its own. Under Article 2(9) the requesting authority may serve a document directly on a person in Montenegro, by post or electronically, without going through the Montenegrin authority at all.
The uniform instrument, and the exception that matters
A recovery request must carry a uniform instrument permitting enforcement in the requesting state. It names the original enforcement title, describes the claim, its nature and the period it covers, the dates relevant to enforcement, the amount and its components — principal and accrued interest — the debtor's identity, and the authorities involved. Montenegro then applies the same procedures and measures it would apply to a domestic request, and reports back on progress every six months.
The general rule is that the requesting state must first exhaust its own procedures. Article 4(5) then sets out when it need not:
| Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| Evident that the debtor has no assets in the requesting state, or domestic recovery would not secure the claim in full, and the requesting authority has information that the person has assets in Montenegro | Request may be made without exhausting domestic procedures |
| Domestic procedures would cause disproportionate difficulty | Same |
| Otherwise | Domestic procedures must be exhausted first |
Read that first row for what it says. Assets in Montenegro are not a reason to wait; on this wording they are a reason to come here directly.
The reservation pointing the other way
Montenegro is a party to the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and its instrument of ratification deposited on 28 January 2020, in force for it since 1 May 2020, carries a reservation under Article 30(1)(b) reserving the right "not to provide assistance in the recovery of any tax claim, or in the recovery of any administrative fine, for all taxes". A second reservation, under Article 30(1)(d), does the same for the service of documents. Annex A lists only personal income tax and corporate income tax.
So the two things the rulebook builds — recovery and service — are precisely the two Montenegro has reserved out of under the convention that would otherwise carry them. The machinery is domestic and ready; the multilateral basis for using it is switched off by Montenegro's own hand. What remains are bilateral instruments and, in the direction the rulebook is plainly written for, EU accession. If you hold property here, our real estate page sets out how we work through title and transaction risk, and our note on advance tax ruling exchange covers the information side of the same package.
What did not change
The reservation is unchanged: nothing in the rulebook withdraws it, and a withdrawal is an act of treaty practice deposited with the depositary, not a domestic instrument. Ownership, registration and the transfer tax regime are untouched. The rulebook creates no new tax and no new Montenegrin liability — it is about collecting a liability that already exists somewhere else. Domestic enforcement against a Montenegrin tax debtor also keeps its existing shape: seizure, valuation, public auction.
Two things inside that shape did move, in the same amending law. Default interest under Article 95 is no longer a flat 0.03 per cent; it is the European Central Bank's main refinancing rate in force on the first day of the half-year, plus three percentage points, fixed half-yearly and calculated annually. And Article 70 now says that where both the public auction and the sale by direct agreement of seized real property fail, the authority issues a decision transferring the property into state ownership, and the tax debt falls by one third of the determined initial value. Any surplus over the secured claims goes back to the taxpayer within thirty days, with interest if it does not.
How to verify
The rulebook is at sluzbenilist.me/propisi/397030, five pages, signed on 31 July 2026. Article 2 sets the scope and the forms of assistance; Article 4(5) carries the exception to exhaustion; Article 9 requires standard electronic forms. Note that the register's summary line gives entry into force as 15 July 2026, which the act's own final article contradicts — the eighth day after publication on 7 August is 15 August.
Articles 18 and 20 of the amending law are on pages 15 and 16 at 396192. For the reservations, the Council of Europe's depositary register for treaty 127 shows them under Montenegro with the period covered from 1 May 2020. We follow this file under Legal Updates.
