We bring you a selection of the most important changes to tax, accounting and levy laws that were adopted in the framework of a package of 114 measures to improve the business sector – the so-called “podnikateľské kilečko – Business Centum” .
A gradual increase in size criteria for the statutory audit of financial statements
The size criteria shall be amended as follows:
2020 | from 01.01.2021 | from 01.01.2022 | |
Total amount of assets | > 2 million € | > 3 million € | > 4 million € |
Net turnover | > 4 million € | > 6 million € | > 8 million € |
Average number of employees | 30 | 40 | 50 |
The obligation to verify the financial statements shall apply to companies which meet at least two of these conditions for two consecutive financial years.
The threshold for the application of expenditure on fuel to tax expenditure will be increased
Newly, there will be an automatic increase in consumption from the vehicle registration certificate or the technical license by 20%, which will make consumption more realistic and also recognize a larger amount of expenditure on tax expenditure. The conversion shall be made out of the consumption indicated in the certificate of registration or in the supplementary data from the manufacturer or the dealer. The possibility of demonstrating tax costs according to consumption, as evidenced by a document issued by an authorized organization or under its own internal act (for trucks and work mechanisms), remains preserved.
Waiving the imbalance settlement of advance paid
Legal entities which, on the basis of the measures taken during the pandemic, paid lower advances or did not pay advances at all will not settle the imbalance in advances until the end of the calendar month following the deadline for submitting the tax return. This concerns advances paid and payable from the beginning of the tax period until the deadline for submitting the tax return, i.e. for the tax period:
- which is a calendar year starting not earlier than 01.01.2020;
- where the tax period has changed from cal. period to marketing year and started after 01.01.2020;
- which is a marketing year for which the proper or extended deadline for submitting the income tax return expired during the pandemic period;
- which is a marketing year of which at least one month falls in the calendar year 2020.
The deadline for submitting the documentation requested by tax administrators on tax control will be doubled
The minimum time limit for the submission of a statement to a protocol from tax control, in which the taxable person under review is to comment on the findings set out in the protocol, shall be extended from 15 days to 30 working days. This period shall be applied for the first time to the protocols drawn up after 30.06.2020.
The conditions for the application of tax loss deduction in the Lex Corona version are becoming more specific
If the deadline for submitting income tax return expires in 2020 for several tax periods, the preferential tax loss deduction may only be applied by the taxpayer in one tax year.
Prohibition for the Social Insurance Company to request information already in its possession
With the amendment to the Social Insurance Act, the employer’s obligation to notify the Social Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to as ‘SIC’) of the facts which the SIC may otherwise identify will be abolished. The amendment removes the obligation for the employer to:
- deregister from the register of employers under the social security scheme – the SIC will terminate the registration automatically when the last employee is deregistered;
- Notify SIC of changes in the data of their employee (name and surname, permanent or temporary residence) – the SIC will receive data from the Register of natural persons. This obligation is also abolished for the self-employed;
- notify change of data on the date of establishment as well as the date of termination of employment or other legal relationship with the employer;
- notify change in details of whether the employee is a statutory body of the employer and has at least 50 % of the employer’s property or a member of the statutory body of the employer and has at least 50 % participation in the employer’s property;
- Report to the SIC the start and end of maternity or parental leave taken by employees.
In addition, the period for the employer to fulfill the obligation to submit to the SIC a pension insurance certificate for employees who do not apply for a retirement pension after their employment is terminated is extended from 8 days to 30 days following the termination of employment. The obligation to submit a report to the SIC, following an inspection carried out, on the implementation of the measures to remedy the deficiencies found and their causes.
Amendments to tax and levy laws with effect from 1 January at the earliest
The legislation governing levies and taxes will be amended only once a year with effect from 1 January of the following year at the earliest.
Many other laws have also been amended in the package. The measures adopted will remove bureaucratic restrictions on small and medium-sized enterprises, such as: abolition of certain obligations of travel agencies, abolition of bank levies, abolition of the obligation to affix a control sticker to the windscreen of a vehicle as proof of technical inspection, emission control and originality checks, abolition of the obligation to have a published complaint order in a visible place and many others.