Starting a business in Croatia: foreigner's guide (2026)

Croatia's December 2025 amendments to the VAT/Fiscalization Act mandated electronic invoicing for all domestic B2B transactions from 1 January 2026, removing customer-consent requirements and extending certain filing deadlines. Every registered company must now issue and receive structured e-invoices, adding a compliance layer to operating a Croatian business.

The Ministry of Justice presented amendments to the Trading Companies Act (ZTD) to Parliament implementing the EU Gender Balance Directive for large listed companies, enabling virtual and hybrid shareholder general meetings, and adopting OECD Corporate Governance Committee recommendations — supporting Croatia's OECD accession bid. Mandatory shareholder-agreement registration and annual affiliate-transaction reporting were also introduced.

Croatia became the 20th eurozone member state, immediately converting all share capital requirements, registration fees, and statutory thresholds from HRK to EUR. Existing companies were required to redenominate their registered share capital to euros by 1 January 2026, affecting every d.o.o. and j.d.o.o. already on the court register.

Croatia launched the 'START' electronic service allowing founders to establish a d.o.o. or j.d.o.o. entirely online — integrating court registry, tax authority (Porezna uprava), and Central Bureau of Statistics steps — without requiring a physical notary visit for standard incorporations. The platform significantly cut registration time and cost, particularly for foreign entrepreneurs.

Amendments to the ZTD entering into force on 20 April 2019 allowed d.o.o. founders to pay only HRK 5,000 of the HRK 20,000 minimum share capital upfront, with the balance due within one year of registration — lowering the cash barrier to incorporation. The changes simultaneously transposed EU Directive 2017/828 (revised Shareholder Rights Directive) on long-term shareholder engagement.

The World Bank published a report benchmarking 25 cities in Croatia, Czech Republic, Portugal, and Slovakia, revealing significant disparities in company start-up times across Croatian cities. The findings intensified pressure on Zagreb and other municipalities to align procedures with the national single-window and accelerate electronic registration.

Croatia enacted a multi-measure reform package lowering minimum capital constraints for company formation, cutting notary fees for standard incorporations, and launching an electronic system for social security contribution payments. The package formed part of a broader post-EU-accession reform drive that drove Croatia up 45 places in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index (to 43rd globally by 2017).

Croatia's EU accession triggered mandatory alignment of the ZTD and related commercial legislation with the full EU acquis — including EU company-law directives on capital requirements, accounting, cross-border mergers, and single-market access. It also opened Croatia to EU structural-reform funding and benchmarking pressure that drove subsequent business-environment reforms.

Amendments to the ZTD created the jednostavno društvo s ograničenom odgovornošću (j.d.o.o.) — a simplified LLC requiring only HRK 10 in share capital (versus HRK 20,000 for a standard d.o.o.), capped at three founders and one director, using standardised constitutional documents. The vehicle was designed to eliminate barriers to formal self-employment and reduce unregistered economic activity.

The Croatian Government adopted the Strategy of the One Stop Shop Programme in December 2004, establishing HITRO.HR — a unified service at FINA (Financial Agency) offices that consolidated court registry filing, tax registration, and statistical office enrollment at a single counter. The system registered over 30,000 companies and craft businesses, reducing multi-office registration to a single visit.

The Croatian Parliament enacted the Zakon o trgovačkim društvima (ZTD) on 23 November 1993, establishing the legal framework for all commercial company forms — d.o.o. (LLC), d.d. (joint-stock company), partnerships, and silent partnerships. Modelled substantially on German corporate law and replacing Yugoslav-era enterprise legislation, the ZTD remains the primary statute governing company formation and registration in Croatia today.