Personal Identification Number – OIB

Personal identification number (OIB) is a permanent identification mark for each Croatian citizen and legal entity with seat in Croatia. It is determined and given by the Ministry of finance – Tax Administration.

The OIB is regulated by the Personal Identification Number Act, published in Official Gazette, no. 60/08, which came into force on 1 January 2009.

Personal identification number has been introduced for several reasons:

• general informatization of the public administration, whose goal is to increase efficacy of the state institutions and decrease administrative duties for citizens,
• automatic data exchange between state administrative bodies and other state institutions, which will provide the citizens with faster and easier achievement of their rights,
• more efficient overview over the property of the citizens and legal entities, cash flow, what is crucial precondition for transparent economy and systematic repression of corruption,
• harmonization of the Croatian legal system with the legislation of EU.

Personal identification number will gradually replace all numbers that have been used as identification marker so far, for both physical and legal entities in the Republic of Croatia (i.e. company registration number and unique personal identification number). It consists of 11 numbers determined by random selection and it does not contain private data. It is unique, non-disclosing, non-changeable and non-repeatable.

One of basic conditions for introducing OIB was the informatization of the public administration, which made possible to connect and to automatically exchange data between official records. For that reason, five crucial institutions were interconnected – Tax Administration, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Central office for administration, registries of commercial courts and Central bureau for statistics.

Citizens are not required to replace their existing personal documents because of the introduction of the personal identification number. New personal documents including the OIB will be issued when the citizens replace their documents due to habitual reasons, such as expiration of the document.

Determining and assigning of personal identification number is conducted without any expense for citizens, who gain it.

Assigning OIB to foreign citizens

Assigning OIB to foreign citizens is prescribed by Article 8 paragraph 4 Personal Identification Number Act, which states: ''The personal identification number for a foreigner is determined and assigned based on the data of authorized bodies and legal entities on a reason for tracking of the foreigner in the Republic of Croatia'', and is further regulated in the Ordinance on the personal identification number (Official gazette, no. 01/09).

OIB is assigned to foreigners in cases when they register their habitual residence in the Ministry of internal affairs and when there is a reason for monitoring, which occurs:

1. if foreign person becomes tax payer under special regulation,
2. if a foreign person becomes tax payer because it acquires property for which the tax is paid and registered in official records (real estate – real estate transfer tax, registry into land books etc.),
3. if a foreign person is registered in official records, but it is not a tax payer.

In case a foreign person wishes to obtain OIB through an attorney, the power of attorney, signed by hand and issued for that purpose, is required, together with a copy of a passport.  Request for determining and assigning OIB must contain basic data, data on the identification document (passport) and parent’s data. For foreign legal entities, besides the power of attorney, extract from the register of companies certified with apostille, is required.

Data that must be specified in the request for determining and assigning OIB are: identification number, type of the legal entity, legal form – if existing, company name and abbreviated company name, address and address of the seat.

Foreigners need OIB for real estate acquisition

Foreigners, who gain real estate in Croatia, register their ownership in land register of authorized court. 

Because of the registration of ownership in official records, a foreigner must obtain the OIB prior to his registration in official records. For that purpose, foreigner, or his/her attorney, submits a request for determination and assignment of OIB to the authorized branch office of the Tax Administration, according to the place where the reason for tracking occurred, that is, where the real estate is located.

Authorized branch of the Tax Administration, upon verifying data enlisted in the Request, determines and assigns the OIB to the foreigner.

Based on the Confirmation on the OIB, the foreign person proves its determined and assigned OIB for the purpose of registration in the official records and other actions that antecede the registration.

It is expected that implementation of OIB will facilitate more sufficient overview over the property of the citizens and legal entities, and over the cash flow, which will contribute to the prevention of the grey economy and struggle against corruption and crime.