Part three of the series “eVisitor, tourist tax and the duty to register” — the levies side for landlords.
Anyone letting their property on the Adriatic is in a different regime from the owner who only uses the place themselves, the subject of part one. The duties to register from part two still apply — but the logic of the levies turns around completely.
The most important difference first, because it affects almost everybody and almost nobody knows it: as a private landlord you do not pay the tourist tax per guest and per night, but as an annual flat rate per bed — and you may not put it on your guest’s bill.
First things first: the approval decision
Before we get to levies, the prior question. Letting to holiday guests is a hospitality activity in Croatia and requires an approval decision from the competent administrative office — the rješenje o odobrenju za pružanje ugostiteljskih usluga u domaćinstvu. With it come the classification of the property, requirements for its fittings, and registration with the tourist board.
We do not give legal or tax advice and deliberately go no further into the detail here. What you should know: the mild range of fines we described in part one for the non-letting owner does not apply here. Anyone letting without approval risks sanctions under the hospitality act in an entirely different order of magnitude — and the tourism inspectorate can prohibit the provision of the accommodation service until the objections have been remedied. For the application we refer you to local specialists, without taking a commission.
The flat rate per bed — and why it surprises people
For people providing hospitality accommodation services in a household or on a family farm, the law provides for an annual flat rate of tourist tax for every bed — main beds and extra beds alike, and for campsites correspondingly per pitch.
Three consequences follow that regularly cause trouble.
The flat rate is measured by capacity, not by occupancy. You pay for every approved bed, regardless of whether it was occupied this year. An apartment with eight beds that stays half empty in a weak season costs exactly the same tourist tax as one that was booked out throughout.
The extra bed counts too. The pull-out sofa in the living room, listed as an extra bed in the classification, raises your flat rate permanently. Anyone registering capacity they barely use pays for it every year.
You pay even with no guests at all. The flat rate arises from the approved capacity, not from the guest. If you are sitting a season out, discuss it with the tourist board rather than simply letting it run.
The amount is set — as with all tourist tax figures — by the assembly of the county, after consulting the local tourist boards, and by 31 January of the current year for the year following. Within the upper and lower limits laid down nationally, the rates differ considerably from county to county. If a county passes no decision, the statutory minimum applies automatically.
One point in favour of structurally weaker municipalities: for municipalities and towns classified as supported areas, the tourist tax is set at a reduction of up to 30 per cent.
The misconception: “I collect the tourist tax from the guest”
That is how it works for hotels and commercial providers — but not for letting in a household.
Legal persons and registered traders offering overnight stays collect the tourist tax from the guest at the same time as payment for the service, and show the amount separately on the invoice, together with the ground for any exemption or reduction.
For letting in a household the opposite expressly applies: these providers do not show the amount of the tourist tax on the invoice for the accommodation service provided. The flat rate is your own levy, calculated into your nightly price — not a line you add to the guest’s bill.
Anyone who nevertheless collects a separate “tourist tax” at check-in risks an unpleasant situation. Where a provider in a household charges the guest tourist tax and refuses to repay it, the law expressly provides that the inspector orders the refund to the guest — and, if the guest can no longer be traced, that the amount is paid over to the state budget.
The payment deadlines
Here the system divides sharply by legal form.
Letting in a household (private landlords with approval): you can pay the annual flat rate either in a single amount by 31 July, or in three equal instalments — the first due on 31 July, the second on 31 August, the third on 30 September of the current year. You retrieve the payment slips for this directly from eVisitor.
Legal persons and traders (which includes the case where your property is held in a Croatian d.o.o. and let by it): here nothing is flat-rated. The tourist tax is paid over as at the 1st and the 15th of each month for all overnight stays provided in that period, falling due within seven days. That is a fortnightly rhythm across the whole season — considerably more work than the private landlord’s three summer instalments.
Non-letting owners pay their annual flat rate by 15 July; see part one.
Miss the deadline and you get no reminder in the German sense, but a decision from the competent tourism inspector ordering payment. If a private landlord has not paid the flat rate by 30 September, the inspector orders payment by decision; fines are added, and they rise noticeably on repetition. The claim to unpaid tourist tax only becomes time-barred five years after it fell due.
Do not forget the tourist board membership fees
The tourist tax is not the only tourism-related levy. Alongside it sits the membership fee payable to the tourist boards, governed by a law of its own (Zakon o članarinama u turističkim zajednicama). That is a separate levy with its own basis of calculation and its own deadlines — and it tends to get lost in practice, because many landlords file “tourist board” and “tourist tax” mentally as one and the same thing.
Also independent of all this: the flat-rate taxation of letting income and, since 2025, the new property tax that replaced the former holiday-home tax. Both are tax matters on which we deliberately do not advise — your tax adviser in Croatia is the right address.
The year in dates for landlords
31 January — the county publishes the tourist tax rates for the following year. The moment to check your own calculation.
15 July — annual flat rate for non-letting owners.
31 July — flat rate per bed: full payment, or the first instalment.
31 August — second instalment.
30 September — third instalment; after that the payment decision looms.
Four questions to ask yourself before the season
Is my registered number of beds still right? If you have removed an extra bed, or no longer use the capacity, you are otherwise paying every year for beds that no longer exist.
Am I calculating the tourist tax into my nightly price? It is your cost item, not the guest’s.
Do I know the current rate for my municipality? It is decided afresh every year. Last year’s decision is not automatically this year’s.
Who registers when I am not there? The 24-hour deadline runs whether you are in Croatia or in Germany. If nobody on the ground is reliably responsible, that is not an organisational detail but an open risk.
How we handle it
For landlords we take on the ongoing registration and deregistration in eVisitor, keep an eye on the payment dates over the summer, check your municipality’s current tourist tax decision each year, and keep your property master data with the tourist board correct. If an inspection comes, the documentation is there.
A word on the pricing model, because it usually comes up in this context. Many agencies on the Adriatic charge a percentage of your letting income. We do not. Guest registration is an administrative task with a defined amount of work — and that work is the same whether your apartment brings in 80 euros a night or 300. We charge accordingly.
That brings this three-part series to an end. Part one covers the duty to register for owners who use the property themselves, part two the practical work with eVisitor.
This article gives an overview of the rules under the Croatian law on the tourist tax (Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi, NN 52/19, 32/20, 42/20). It is not legal or tax advice and in particular does not deal with tax questions arising from letting. The actual amounts are set each year by the county concerned; what governs is the current decision of your county and the information given by your local tourist board. For legal and tax questions we refer you to independent specialists, without taking a commission.