Montenegro has launched an international tender for the design and implementation of a national VAT Information Exchange System, creating the digital infrastructure needed for the country’s tax administration to exchange VAT data with authorities across the European Union from the first day of membership.
The Montenegro Tax Administration is the purchaser, while the procurement is being conducted through the Technical Service Unit of the Ministry of Finance under the planned SMART Tax Project. Montenegro has applied for World Bank financing for the programme and intends to use part of the future loan proceeds to finance the contract.
The procurement covers the design, development, integration, conformity testing, commissioning and initial warranty-period operation of the new VIES National Solution and EU Tax-Systems Integration Information System. The selected supplier will have 15 months to complete installation and commissioning at the Tax Administration’s headquarters in Podgorica and at other designated locations across the country.
The tender was issued on August 4, 2026, with proposals due by September 14, 2026 at 10:00 local time. The contract value has not been publicly disclosed. However, the qualification thresholds and required supplier experience indicate that Montenegro is seeking an established international tax-technology integrator rather than a conventional local software contractor.
Prospective bidders must demonstrate participation as a prime supplier, management contractor, joint-venture member or subcontractor in at least two relevant contracts during the previous five years, with each contract valued at no less than €700,000. The projects must have been successfully and substantially completed.
At least one reference contract must have involved an information system for a tax administration. A second must demonstrate integration with an EU tax platform, the European Commission’s Common Communication Network, its successor CCN2, VIES or a comparable secure inter-administration data-exchange environment. A single contract may satisfy both requirements.
These conditions substantially narrow the potential bidder pool. Relevant suppliers are likely to include European public-sector technology groups with direct experience in national VAT platforms, customs and taxation networks, government interoperability and high-security cross-border data exchange.
Technical quality will carry more weight than price. The tender assigns 60% of the evaluation score to rated technical and non-price criteria and 40% to bid cost. That ratio reflects the operational and security importance of the system: a lower-priced offer will not be competitive unless it also demonstrates mature architecture, integration capability, implementation governance and experience with EU tax infrastructure.
No contract payments will be made before March 2027, when the anticipated World Bank funds are expected to become available. This creates a clear financing condition for the procurement and means that the physical implementation phase will depend on the effectiveness and disbursement timetable of the proposed SMART Tax financing arrangement.
The schedule nonetheless corresponds with Montenegro’s wider objective of completing its EU accession preparations by 2028. Assuming contract signature and financing availability during 2027, the 15-month delivery period could allow the core platform to become operational during 2028. The timing is important because VIES connectivity cannot be treated as a post-accession upgrade. It must be tested, secured and ready to operate when Montenegro enters the EU VAT territory.
VIES is the EU’s system for exchanging information on businesses registered for value-added tax and validating VAT identification numbers used in cross-border transactions. It allows tax administrations and businesses to confirm whether a company is properly registered for VAT in another member state.
The system is central to the operation of the EU single market. Supplies of goods and certain services between VAT-registered businesses in different member states can receive specific cross-border VAT treatment, but only where the participants are properly identified and the transaction is correctly reported. VIES provides one of the principal mechanisms for confirming that tax status and comparing information held by different national administrations.
Contrary to the appearance of the public VAT-number verification service, VIES is not a single central database containing all European taxpayers. It functions through connections with national VAT databases. When a verification request is submitted, the system retrieves information from the relevant member state and returns a valid or invalid response. Montenegro therefore needs a reliable national platform capable of responding to requests from other countries while also transmitting and receiving information through the EU’s secure administrative network.
The tender goes beyond the creation of a VAT-number verification interface. The planned solution must establish a reusable technical foundation for additional EU tax-information exchange systems operating through the same network, cybersecurity and operational model. This makes the project part of a broader digital-tax architecture rather than a standalone application.
The winning supplier will need to integrate the platform with Montenegro’s existing taxpayer register, VAT records, identification services and tax-administration applications. Data quality will be as important as connectivity. An EU-compliant interface cannot compensate for inconsistent taxpayer records, duplicate registrations, incomplete business identifiers or delays in updating VAT status within the national database.
The project will consequently require extensive data cleansing, mapping and reconciliation before final commissioning. The Tax Administration will need clearly defined ownership of each dataset, automated validation rules, procedures for correcting discrepancies and a controlled migration process that preserves the audit trail.
Cybersecurity will be another central element. Tax databases contain commercially sensitive and personally identifiable information, while cross-border connectivity increases the number of potential attack paths. The national solution will need secure authentication, encryption, role-based access, logging, incident detection, business-continuity arrangements and disaster-recovery capability.
The system must also provide complete traceability of requests and responses. Tax authorities need to know which user or institution accessed particular data, when a query was made, what information was returned and whether the exchange was completed successfully. Those records are essential for compliance investigations, fraud detection, audit work and the resolution of disputes involving intra-EU transactions.
Montenegro has already digitised a substantial portion of domestic tax reporting through electronic fiscalisation, which has required transaction information to be transmitted to the tax authorities electronically. The VIES project represents a different stage of tax-system development: it connects the national tax administration to the operational infrastructure of the EU single market.
This transition will also affect Montenegrin businesses. Companies trading with EU counterparties will have to use VAT identification data that can be verified across the European network. Errors in registration details, company names, addresses or tax status could delay transactions, disrupt invoicing and cause customers or suppliers to question the applicable VAT treatment.
Exporters, importers, logistics companies, online retailers, professional-services firms and tourism businesses will therefore need to align their enterprise systems and master data with the information held by the Tax Administration. The impact will extend into accounting software, electronic invoicing, customer onboarding and tax-compliance procedures.
The requirement becomes more significant when considered alongside the EU’s wider VAT in the Digital Age reform. European tax systems are moving towards more extensive digital reporting, stronger transaction-level controls and a modernised central VIES environment. Montenegro is therefore joining an architecture that is itself being redesigned.
The tender’s emphasis on reusable network, security and operating components is intended to reduce the risk that the country builds a narrow platform that becomes obsolete soon after accession. The selected architecture will need to support current VIES requirements while remaining capable of adaptation to future EU reporting standards and centralised data-exchange models.
Institutionally, the project will require more than software delivery. Tax officials must be trained to administer the platform, manage access rights, investigate exceptions, respond to international requests and maintain operational continuity. Detailed operating procedures, technical documentation and knowledge transfer will be necessary to prevent long-term dependence on the original supplier.
The procurement also requires disclosure of the successful bidder’s beneficial ownership as part of the contract-award notice, in line with World Bank procurement rules. Proposals must be submitted physically, as electronic procurement is not permitted, and must include a proposal-securing declaration. Technical proposals will be opened first, while the financial submissions will remain sealed until the second stage of evaluation.
Montenegro’s new VIES platform will ultimately function as part of the country’s economic infrastructure. Its readiness will determine whether businesses can move smoothly into the EU VAT system and whether the Tax Administration can monitor cross-border transactions without creating delays for legitimate trade. The tender turns that accession requirement into a defined technology programme, with procurement beginning in 2026, financing expected from March 2027 and implementation structured around a 15-month delivery period.
