The Government of the Slovak Republic has adopted a long-awaited amendment to the Construction Act which has triggered the need to modify several laws related to business and tax obligations of corporations and personal entities.
We bring you an overview of changes incorporated into the previously amended laws that were published in January 2025 – Amendments I and Amendments II.
- Trade Licensing Act
Occupations that are not considered a trade include professional activities and professional practice of a trade profession:
- Authorized spatial planners
- Authorized Control Engineers
- Authorized construction managers and construction supervision
The use of technical or technological equipment intended for the operation of a trade such as stalls, counters or portable equipment and market places no longer requires a building plan decision.
Trade licenses for documentation and project development of simple or small constructions, management of construction and construction in scope of free trade obtained before 1 April 2025 remain valid until 31 March 2029.
Concurrently, the list of trades and the competence requirements for building trade profession activity has been extended by group no. 213 (Annex 2 of the Act).
- Warehouse Pledge and Lading Act
The warehousekeeper is obliged to send the Ministry an official written notification about the information changes that were the background for issuance certificate of authorization to operate a public warehouse within 15 days from the day the change occurs. This notification shall be accompanied by the documents by which the operator proves that he is the owner of the warehouse.
The time limit from the issue of the warehouse operating permit is no longer counted.
- Income Tax Act
The amendment to the Building Act redefined the concept of “buildings and other structures” which are not considered to be a building for the purposes of depreciation of property. The depreciation charge calculation does not more involves:
- small buildings in forest and other lands serving to ensure forest production and hunting,
if their built-up area does not exceed 50 m² and a height of 5 m and except for the fencing serving to ensure forest production and hunting
In case of exceeding the metric criteria, the land should be considered as building and other buildings that taxpayers can depreciate.
Also, the depreciation of a set of buildings forming a functional unit has been defined, whereby each building that is part of a set of buildings meeting the conditions for a functional unit is classified in a depreciation group separately.
New transitional provision effective from 1 April 2025 provides that to apply tax depreciation charges, the original wording of the Act shall apply to:
- buildings and structures for which, under the Building Regulations, proceedings have been commenced and completed by 31 March 2025
- buildings and structures where the Building Act is followed and the definition of the nature of the building is changed – are considered to be buildings and structures according to the wording of the Act in force until 31 March 2025
- Local Taxes Act
Due to law amendment the definition of building land for the local property tax calculation is also modified. The new definition of building land is as follows:
- the land specified in the final decision on the building plan until the issue of the certificate of approval for the building, which is subject to the tax on buildings, or the building with flats and non-residential premises in a residential building, which are subject to the tax on flats. The total area of the building plot consists of the plots whose plot numbers are indicated in the decision on the building plan on the date of its legal validity. The total area of the building plot is not affected if the building plot has been divided by a geometric plan after the decision on the building plan has become final.
The definition of what is not building land has been modified as:
- the land specified in the notification of minor construction, in the notification of construction modification or in the decision on the construction plan for the modification of the completed construction. For the purposes of this Act, land for which a building plan decision has been issued shall not be deemed to be building land if the verification clause for the building project has lapsed and, at the same time, construction work has not commenced in accordance with the verified building project. A building plot is not a parcel of land specified in a final building plan decision which is owned by a person other than the person to whom the final building plan decision has been issued, if only the civil engineering works for the building are to be constructed on that parcel of land.
If the local tax liability, the levy obligation or notification obligation arise before 31 December 2025, the rules in force until 31 March 2025 shall apply.
A valid building permit for a building according to the previous regulations is considered to be a decision on a building plan. A final building approval under the previous regulations shall be deemed to be a certificate of building approval.
