Serbia Updated the Fiscal Law Relevant to Cases of Invalid QR Codes on Fiscal Receipts

Serbia has amended its Law on Fiscalization to introduce an immediate one-year ban on business activity where a receipt contains a QR code not generated through the Tax Administration’s fiscalization system or one that does not correspond to the recorded transaction. 

Serbia has introduced a new enforcement rule under the Law on Fiscalization aimed specifically at receipts carrying invalid, mismatched or technically manipulated QR codes. The Law Amending and Supplementing the Law on Fiscalization was adopted by the National Assembly on August 31, 2026, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 80/2026 in this country.

The amendment changes Article 12(5) of the Law on Fiscalization and adds a new paragprah which is the paragraph 6. Its main effect is not to introduce any new QR-code requirement because a QR code for verification was already part of the mandatory content of a fiscal receipt under Article 5. Instead, the amendment introduces a specific and stricter enforcement consequence where the QR code appearing on a receipt cannot be verified as a genuine code linked to the actual fiscalized transaction.

What types of QR-code irregularities are covered?

Under the amended Article 12(5), a one-year prohibition on performing business activity applies where a taxpayer issues a receipt for the sale of goods or services containing a QR code and verification shows that the code was not generated through the Tax Administration’s electronic fiscalization system.

The same treatment applies where the QR code does not lead to the Tax Administration’s portal, or where it leads to a Fiscal Receipt that does not correspond to the transaction concerned. The law specifically covers cases in which the QR code points to another Fiscal Receipt, a different amount, date, item or taxpayer. It also covers a document that has subsequently been altered, combined or technically created.

The wording is therefore broader than a simple case of a QR code that cannot be scanned. The relevant issue is whether verification confirms that the QR code was generated through the official fiscalization system and whether it corresponds to the transaction for which the document was issued.

This is particularly relevant because Serbian fiscalization rules already require a printed Fiscal Receipt to contain a QR code for verification, while an electronically issued Fiscal Receipt contains a verification hyperlink. Customers and recipients of Fiscal Receipts are also able to verify whether a receipt was issued in accordance with the fiscalization rules immediately after its issuance.

How does the new sanction differ from the previous?

Article 12 already contains a graduated prohibition regime where an inspection establishes that a fiscalization taxpayer failed to record every individual retail transaction, including advances for future retail transactions, through an Electronic Fiscal Device.

Under the general rules, the prohibition lasts 15 days for a first irregularity, 90 days for a second irregularity and one year for a third irregularity, where the relevant irregularities are identified within the prescribed 24-month period.

The new QR-code case is treated differently. Amended Article 12(5) sets the prohibition at one year, while the newly added Article 12(6) states that the measure is imposed immediately. In other words, the specific QR-code cases listed in the amendment do not follow the gradual 15-day, 90-day and one-year sequence.

The amendment also affects taxpayers operating at fairs, festivals, exhibitions and other events forming part of cultural, musical, sporting or other social activities. For these activities, the prohibition continues to apply for the duration of the relevant event, but the amended law now expressly provides that the measure under Article 12(5) is imposed immediately.

What is the impact on retailers and POS providers operating in Serbia?

For retailers, the amendment increases the compliance risk attached to the Fiscal receipt produced at the point of sale. A document may visually resemble a regular Fiscal receipt, but the consequences are now considerably more serious if its QR code was not generated through the official fiscalization process or if it leads to fiscal data belonging to another transaction.

The amendment does not establish a new format, a new QR-code structure or a new POS certification procedure. Its focus is to follow current rules more diligently. Retailers that already issue fiscalized receipts correctly through an approved Electronic Fiscal Device are therefore not required by this amendment to introduce a new QR-code format. Existing rules already require receipts to be generated through approved fiscalization components and include the appropriate verification element.

The practical risk is greater where several systems participate in receipt generation, printing or document processing. Integrated POS environments, middleware, reprint functions and other processes should preserve the connection between the transaction registered through the fiscalization system and the QR code appearing on the customer document.

This last point is a compliance recommendation rather than a new technical obligation introduced by the amendment. The law defines the circumstances in which the sanction applies but does not prescribe new software architecture or integration requirements.

What should retailers and solution providers check?

• Retailers could review sample fiscal receipts produced in their live environment and verify that the QR code leads to the Tax Administration’s verification service and corresponds to the actual transaction, including the relevant amount, date, items and taxpayer.
• POS and fiscal solution providers should review receipt templates, integrations, reprint processes and other document-generation functions to ensure that QR codes are not copied from another Fiscal Receipt or modified outside the normal fiscalization process.

To be clear, the main change is therefore the enforcement consequence rather than the technical structure of the fiscal receipt. The amendment is for situations where the customer receives a document whose QR code cannot be connected to the correct transaction in the Tax Administration’s fiscalization system. For retailers and POS providers, the practical priority should be ensuring that the complete receipt flow preserves this connection from fiscalization through to the document delivered to the customer.

The principal legal basis is the Law Amending and Supplementing the Law on Fiscalization, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 80/2026. The National Assembly records the law as adopted whereas the text of the new amendment itself can be accessed here: Law Amending and Supplementing the Law on Fiscalization – Official Gazette No. 80/2026. The updated consolidated Law on Fiscalization has become also available from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia.

Tara Nedeljković, Team Lead of Legal Consultants at Fiscal Solutions

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