Serbia’s new accounting law: What it will mean for your company?

Higher size thresholds, sustainability reporting, tougher rules for bookkeeping agencies — a practical guide for managers and finance professionals to a reform that is still a draft, but worth preparing for now.

Serbia is rewriting the rulebook that governs how companies keep their books and report their results. If you own or manage a company in Serbia, or you are planning to open a company or a branch, you must know that the Ministry of Finance has drafted a new Accounting Law to replace the 2019 one, moving in tandem with a new draft Audit Law, and the package is designed to bring the country closer to European Union reporting standards ahead of accession. It was open for public consultation between late April and mid-May 2026, and the Ministry has since published its report on the responses.

One point matters before any planning: this is still a draft. It has not been adopted, the wording can change — especially the most contested parts — and the dates are provisional. But the direction is clear enough that finance teams can start getting ready. Most of the new rules are expected to apply from 2027, with the heaviest new obligations pushed out to 2030. Here is what deserves a manager’s attention.

Check your size category again
The law sorts companies into micro, small, medium and large, and those labels decide how much reporting a company owes, which standards it uses, and whether it must be audited. The draft changes the sorting in two ways.

First, the revenue ceilings rise: the thresholds move up to roughly €900,000, €10 million and €50 million, and the asset thresholds increase as well. Second, and more easily overlooked, the measure itself changes. Classification would be based on “net operating revenue” — only the sale of goods, products and services — leaving out subsidies, changes in inventory and capitalised work. For many companies, that narrower definition, combined with the higher ceilings, will mean dropping into a lower category and a lighter reporting burden.

There is a trap, though. The draft Audit Law does not raise the mandatory-audit threshold, which stays at total revenue above €4.4 million. A company can therefore move down a size category and still be required to have its statements audited. The two questions — what size am I, and must I be audited — now have to be answered separately.

Which standards will apply
The tiering of accounting standards is broadly preserved. Large entities, listed and public-interest entities, and parent companies that prepare consolidated accounts would apply full IFRS. Small and medium companies would use IFRS for SMEs, with the option to move up to full IFRS. Micro entities and certain others would follow a national rulebook built on general accounting principles, with the option of IFRS for SMEs. For most mid-sized firms, in other words, the framework they already know stays in place.

Sustainability and tax transparency arrive — but not yet
The headline novelty is sustainability reporting. Following the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, large and public-interest entities would have to disclose environmental, social and governance information on a “double materiality” basis — reporting both how sustainability issues affect the business and how the business affects people and the planet. Alongside it, large multinational groups would face public country-by-country reporting of income tax.

The reassuring part for most companies is the timing: both obligations are set to begin only with the financial statements for 2030. That is a long runway. The companies that should not treat it as distant are Serbian subsidiaries of EU groups already caught by the CSRD at group level. For them, the sensible move is to map now which ESG data will be needed and who owns it, so the local obligation, when it lands, slots into group reporting rather than colliding with it.

If you outsource your bookkeeping, expect change
Many Serbian companies — especially smaller ones — hand their accounting to an external agency, and this is where the draft is most demanding, and most disputed. It would require accounting-service providers to carry mandatory professional-liability insurance, with a minimum sum tied to their prior-year fee income; to undergo continuous verification that they still meet licensing conditions, at their own cost; to complete ongoing professional training at designated bodies; and to file additional data about their clients.

For the businesses on the other side of those contracts, the practical consequence is simple: these costs will tend to show up in fees. Companies that outsource their books should review their contracts and budgets in good time. It is also worth knowing that these provisions are the flashpoint of the whole reform — professional associations argue they impose cost without solving the sector’s real problems and even sit uneasily with EU rules on proportionality, data minimisation and not asking businesses for the same information twice. Because they are the most contested, they are also the provisions most likely to be redrawn before the law is adopted.

Smaller but real operational changes
A few changes will touch day-to-day administration. Financial statements would have to be signed not only by the legal representative but also by the people responsible for preparing them, raising personal accountability inside the finance function. The deadline for submitting and recording accounting documents would move from five to eight working days. And retention periods are spelled out: financial statements and annual reports for 20 years, the journal and general ledger for 10, auxiliary ledgers for five.

What to do now
Even with the text unsettled, four steps cost little and position a company well:

Re-run your size classification on 2025–2026 figures using the new “net operating revenue” measure, and check the €4.4 million audit threshold separately.
If you belong to an EU group already reporting under CSRD, begin mapping ESG data and responsibilities ahead of 2030.
If you outsource accounting, revisit contracts and budgets for possible fee increases.
Prepare the internal finance function for dual signing of statements and the shorter, eight-day recording window.
The bottom line
Serbia’s accounting reform is real, EU-driven and, for most companies, manageable — higher thresholds and a distant 2030 start for sustainability reporting soften the impact for smaller firms. But it is still a draft, and the details that will matter most to any given company are precisely the ones still in play. The companies that come out ahead will be the ones watching the final text and doing the quiet preparation now, rather than reacting once the law is on the books.

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