Joint offer with neighbouring farms: who does what, who invoices, what to write down

Two or three neighbouring farms often offer a guest together what each of them has: a room, dinner, a tasting, a walk to the vineyard. Before the first sale, decide who sells and collects the money, who is responsible to the guest for what, and whether selling everything at one price already counts as travel agency business. The rules on agencies, VAT and fiscal receipts are covered in other Hub articles. Here we only show how to fit them into an agreement between neighbours.

In short

• The simplest model: each farm offers, books and charges for its own service, at its own price. What you share is the schedule, recommending each other, and promotion.
• A pre-arranged combination of at least two services that lasts more than 24 hours or includes a night, sold at one total price fixed in advance, is a tourist package (Zakon o turizmu, the Law on Tourism, Art. 3). Selling it is travel agency business (Art. 19 and 21).
• Whoever collects payment for someone else's service in their own name is treated by the VAT Law (Art. 10) as having provided that service, so the whole amount can count toward their 100,000 KM threshold (Art. 57).
• The agreement needs no set form (Zakon o obligacionim odnosima, the Law on Obligations, Art. 67), but write it down and sign it.

Dividing the work

1. Give each farm its own area: accommodation, food, tasting or guiding. Two signatories do not offer the same service.
2. Name one person to receive enquiries and keep the arrivals calendar. That person only passes enquiries on and coordinates dates. They take no commission or fee and collect no money for others. Taking bookings for other farms for pay can count as brokering, and brokering for profit is agency business (Zakon o turizmu, Art. 19, para 1, and Art. 21, para 1, points 8 and 9).
3. Agree a minimum standard for each service: what is included, for how many people, when it starts and when it ends.
4. Example (invented): farm A offers an overnight stay, farm B a wine tasting, farm C lunch. Each service has its own price and its own booking. The guest may take one without the others and gets a separate invoice from each farm. If you offer the same three as one set at one total price, it becomes a package.

Who invoices the guest

• The simplest solution is for each farm to invoice what it provided itself. The income stays with the farm that earned it, and no money is passed on.
• If one farm collects everything and passes on the others' share, the whole amount can count as that farm's turnover. It should keep a written record of what it collected and for whom. Ask your accountant or the Uprava za indirektno oporezivanje (Indirect Taxation Authority) how to record it. If you are near the VAT threshold, ask before you agree on this.
• The farm where the guest stays registers the guest and charges the tourist tax, not the coordinator (see the Hub articles on registering guests and on the tourist tax).
• For fiscal receipts and farmer exemptions see the article on fiscalisation, and for the VAT threshold the article on VAT for small farms and guesthouses.
• If you agree a joint price, charging each part separately does not help. Zakon o turizmu (Art. 23, para 3) says that calculating or charging individual services of the same package separately does not release the agency from its obligations.

Responsibility toward the guest

• If each farm has its own booking and invoice, each farm is responsible to the guest for its own service.
• If several farms owe under one joint contract, as with a joint package, a divisible obligation is split into equal parts and each farm is responsible for its own part, unless a different split was set (Zakon o obligacionim odnosima, the Law on Obligations, ZOO, Art. 412).
• It is different for a commercial contract, meaning one that companies and registered sole traders make with each other as part of their business (ZOO Art. 25), for example when a travel agency buys your joint offer. Then the debtors are jointly liable, unless the contract expressly excludes joint liability (Art. 413). The buyer can demand the whole obligation from any one of them (Art. 414).
• So state expressly in the contract with the buyer and in your booking terms that each farm is responsible only for its own service. This works only if the guest or buyer really has a separate arrangement with each farm.
• If you do end up jointly liable, whoever pays more than their share can claim it back from the others (Art. 423). Unless agreed otherwise, the shares are equal (Art. 424). If you want a different split, write it into the agreement.

What to put in the written agreement

1. The parties (name, tax ID or registration number, address) and how long the agreement lasts.
2. Exactly what each farm provides, when and for how many people.
3. Who invoices what, at what price, and whether a price can change only with everyone's consent.
4. Who receives enquiries and confirms dates, how quickly a guest gets an answer, and that the coordinator takes no commission.
5. Cancellation and bad weather: who refunds and who bears the loss.
6. Who replies to guest complaints.
7. Who bears damage, and whether an insurance policy is required.
8. Who may use the joint name, photos and adverts, and who pays for them.
9. How a farm can leave (notice period) and what happens to shared material.

When a licence is needed

If the farms agree to sell everything together at one price, you have to check whether it counts as a package. A similar set with no overnight stay, lasting under 24 hours and sold at one price, may count as an excursion (Art. 3, para 1, point 12; Art. 21, para 1, point 1). Only a registered company or sole trader holding a licence from the Ministry may carry out agency business (Art. 19, para 2, and Art. 37). So either offer each service with its own price and its own booking, with no joint total price, or leave selling the package to a licensed agency. Ask the ministry about your own case before the first sale. On the agency licence, see the article on excursions and tour packages.

Where to go

• Ministarstvo trgovine i turizma Republike Srpske (Ministry of Trade and Tourism), for the question whether your offer is a package or an excursion: vladars.rs, e-mail mtt@mtt.vladars.rs, phone 051/338 769 (as listed on the ministry page).
• Uprava za indirektno oporezivanje BiH (Indirect Taxation Authority), for VAT questions: uino.gov.ba.
• Your accountant, before you agree who collects the money.

Laws and sources

• Zakon o turizmu (Službeni glasnik RS br. 49/2026, a new law in force since 10 June 2026 that replaced the law in 45/17 and 16/23), Art. 3, 19, 21, 23, 37, gazette text on the Ministry of Trade and Tourism website
• Zakon o obligacionim odnosima (Sl. list SFRJ 29/78, 39/85, 45/89, 57/89 and Sl. glasnik RS 17/93, 3/96, 39/03, 74/04), Art. 25, 67, 412 to 414, 423, 424, register entry of the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska
• Zakon o porezu na dodatu vrijednost (Službeni glasnik BiH 9/05, 35/05, 100/08, 33/17, 46/23, 80/23 and 20/25), Art. 10 and 57, legislation page of the Uprava za indirektno oporezivanje BiH