Montenegro collected almost €1.2 billion in gross tax revenue during the first eight months of 2026, while the Tax Administration is preparing digital mechanisms to monitor private accommodation through data from platforms including Booking and Airbnb. Revenue was approximately €98 million higher than in the same period of 2025. VAT collections approached €380 million, representing an annual increase of around €19 million. The stronger collection coincides with plans to expand tax enforcement from conventional inspections toward automated analysis of commercial data generated by digital platforms.
Booking Platforms Targeted for Data Exchange
The Tax Administration is preparing systems to compare information from booking platforms with taxpayer registrations and declared income. Automatic data exchange with major platforms could begin from the next tourism season. The information available to tax authorities could include hosts, accommodation listings, booking activity and prices, making undeclared rental income easier to identify.
Authorities currently rely heavily on physical inspections, municipal registration systems and taxpayer declarations. Direct access to platform information would provide an additional enforcement mechanism covering accommodation activity visible through international booking services. Private apartments, houses and rooms represent a significant share of Montenegro’s accommodation capacity, particularly along the Adriatic coast. Some of that activity remains outside full tax reporting, creating a difference between registered tourism activity and the market recorded by online platforms.
Impact on Private Accommodation
Greater use of platform data could affect thousands of small property owners in addition to hotels and professional tourism companies. Operators complying with registration and reporting requirements could face different competitive conditions compared with hosts whose rental activity remains outside the formal system. For unregistered landlords, online booking records could make rental activity traceable without requiring an initial physical inspection.
Tourism is among the sectors exposed to Montenegro’s grey economy, alongside construction, retail and hospitality. The growth of online booking has made conventional enforcement more difficult because properties can be marketed internationally, accommodate foreign visitors and generate revenue while leaving limited information in domestic tax records. Automatic data exchange would reduce that information gap.
Wider Digitalisation of Tax Administration
The Tax Administration is also preparing a broader digitalisation programme covering electronic invoicing, electronic dispatch notes and new digital registers. Part of the modernisation is supported through financing linked to a World Bank loan. Greater integration of electronic records would allow authorities to compare sales, purchases, inventory movements, taxpayer declarations and banking information. Tax supervision could consequently rely more heavily on continuous data analysis rather than periodic inspections.
For companies, this would increase the importance of maintaining consistent digital records across accounting, invoicing, inventory and tax systems. Businesses that have previously managed these functions separately could require more integrated accounting and ERP systems. This can create additional costs, particularly for smaller companies, while automated reporting can also reduce administrative work.
Fiscal Impact of Higher Compliance
The private-accommodation sector faces particular adjustment requirements because many landlords operate on a small scale without formal accounting systems. Greater visibility of platform data could make registration and reporting requirements more difficult to avoid and potentially increase tourism-related tax collection without changes to statutory tax rates.
The information could also improve official tourism statistics. Where private accommodation is not fully registered, reported overnight stays can understate actual activity. Platform information could provide authorities with a broader picture of the tourism market. Higher compliance also has wider public-finance implications. Montenegro is preparing substantial wage and tax reform for 2027 while financing major infrastructure projects and EU-accession requirements. Improved tax collection could provide additional fiscal space by addressing compliance gaps rather than relying exclusively on higher tax rates.
Revenue Performance in 2026
Gross tax revenue of almost €1.2 billion during the first eight months of 2026 represents an increase of roughly 9% compared with the corresponding period of 2025. VAT remains a major source of revenue, with collections approaching €380 million and increasing by approximately €19 million year on year. The stronger revenue figures do not eliminate the informal economy, and the planned use of Booking and Airbnb information reflects the authorities’ efforts to identify activity that remains difficult to monitor through conventional methods.
Implementation will require a legal basis for automated data exchange, privacy safeguards and technical compatibility between international booking platforms and Montenegro’s tax systems. Authorities will also need procedures to distinguish occasional household rentals from professional activity and to address discrepancies between platform records and taxpayer declarations. The Tax Administration’s enforcement model is therefore expanding toward greater use of digital information, with platform data, electronic invoices and digital registers forming part of the planned system for identifying differences between reported and recorded economic activity.
