Newsletter – legislative update and current issues in the area of tax, accounting and payroll

Emergency situation in slovakia

On 10 June 2020 the Government approved a proposal to terminate the emergency situation, which is normally declared for the period of 3 months. Therefore, in Slovakia the emergency situation officially terminated on 13 June 2020.

However, the critical situation persists, i. e. the so-called pandemic period. This is followed by the obligations for employees and employers, such as filing a tax return or annual tax reconciliation.

Submitting a tax return

According to § 21 par. 1 of the Extraordinary Measures Act, the deadline for submitting a tax return pursuant to § 49 par. 2 of Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income Tax (hereinafter referred to as the “Income Tax Act”) is postponed from 31 March 2020 (or the end of the third month after the end of the tax period) to the end of the following calendar month after the termination of the pandemic period. Within this period the tax must be also paid.

Annual tax reconciliation

Pursuant to § 24 par. 2 of the Extraordinary Measures Act, the employer shall make the Annual Tax Reconciliation no later than by the end of the following month after the termination of the pandemic period.

Pursuant to § 24 par. 1 of the Extraordinary Measures Act, and the Annual Tax Statement („Hlásenie“) shall be submitted no later than by the end of the following second month after the termination of the pandemic period.

Changes in the secondment of the staff

Generally speaking, if an employee is allocated to an EU Member State, the law of the state in which he is allocated applies. On 30 July 2020, the Labour Code No. 311/2001 Coll. (hereinafter referred to as the Labour Code) will be amended with regards to secondments of personnel from EU Member States to the territory of the Slovak Republic.

From 30 July 2020, the employment relationship of an employee allocated from another EU country to the territory of the Slovak republic will be governed by the provisions of the Labour Code. The first of the added conditions is that the employer will be obliged to arrange accommodation for his allocated employee in accordance with the conditions and rules applicable in the territory of the Slovak Republic. The second condition added is compensation for travel expenses — applicable in accordance with the Slovak law on Travel Compensation (reimbursement of travel expenses, reimbursement of accommodation expenses and meal allowances).

Liquidation of the company

The liquidation process will be longer, more complicated and costly from 1 October 2020. Companies will be required to pay, in addition to the advanced payment (1 500€) for liquidation, remuneration for further actions of the liquidator and the preparation of the documentation. Smaller companies will be unlikely able to finance such a costly process.

Therefore, if you are planning to close your business, do not delay entry into liquidation. Liquidations in which the liquidator will be entered in the commercial register by 30 September 2020 will be completed according to the legislation which is in force now.

Changes in the pandemic sickness and taking care of family relative

Employees who become temporarily unable to work by a quarantine measure, e.g. the day before the termination of the pandemic period, will be entitled to sickness benefit in the amount of 55% of the daily assessment basis paid by the Social Insurance Company. The same amount of sickness benefit will be paid if this temporary inability continues after the termination of the pandemic period.

For a period when children will not attend pre-schools, schools or social service facilities, despite their opening (from 01.06.2020), the parent of the child will be entitled to care givers allowance, provided that the conditions are met (e.g. if the parent worries for the child's health). However, this legislation will only maintain the entitlement for the care givers allowance if there is a prior education and training process, i.e. during the school holidays the care givers allowance is not entitled to the parent.

Annual health reconciliation

The results of the Annual Health Insurance Clearance (hereafter referred to as ‘RZZP’), carried out by Health Insurance Companies, is to be delivered to employers in the near future. The deadline for the processing of the RZZP for 2019, as compared with the previous periods is postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic to 31 October 2020.

The Notification of the Implementation of the RZZP for 2019 will be sent to each employer via their electronic box. It is necessary to deliver this notification to the payroll provider.

The Notification from the Health Insurance Company shall include passwords, which are also necessary for electronic access to the settlement details that have to be transferred to the payroll processing.

The Health Insurance Company is obliged to repay the excess health insurance within 45 days of the expiration of the period for submission of a dissenting statement.

Incurred health insurance arrears are due within 45 days of the date of entry into force of the statement.

New legislation which should decrease the administrative burden (so called „sulíkove kilečko“)

The Parliament of Slovak Republic approved a package of more than 100 measures under the name ‘Lex korona’, the most significant aid for entrepreneurs since 2014, when the tax reform was introduced.

From among these measures we have chosen those that directly affect payroll, accountancy and taxation:

1. The deadline for submitting the documentation requested by the tax authorities (today 15 days) will be doubled.
2. The conditions for the statutory audit will be increased: turnover (from EUR 4 million to EUR 8 million), the total number of employees (from 30 to 50) and assets (from EUR 2 million to EUR 4 million EUR).
3. It shall be possible, within 5 days, without imposing a penalty, to comply with the additional obligation to provide an overview of the withheld and deferred tax advanced payments from the income from dependent activities paid to employees, employee bonuses, tax bonuses and the specific tax bonus on the interest paid for the previous month.
4. It will become obligatory for Financial Administration of Slovak Republic to announce the amount of the advance payment on personal income to natural persons.
5. The bank levy, currently at 0,4%, is abolished. According to the draft of the law, the payment for third and fourth quarter of 2020 will not be paid.
6. The period for fulfilment of the employer’s obligation to submit a Supplementary pension insurance certificate (ELDP) to the Social Insurance Company for employees who do not claim a retirement pension after the end of the employment relationship, shall be increased from 8 days to 30 days after the termination of the employment relationship.
7. The employer’s obligation to notify Social Insurance Company about maternity leaves of employees, terminations of maternity leaves and parental leaves shall be abolished.
8. The imposition of a fine for failing to comply with the deadline period within 7 days after the expiration of the deadline period under the Social Insurance Act shall be prohibited.
9. Failure of the employer to notify the “ÚPSVaR” about open positions shall not be penalised.
10. The employer’s and employee’s obligations regarding areas of “BOZP”, fire protection, evidence of working time and workplace ergonomics while working from home will be regulated.
11. The conditions for the secondment of staff between subsidiaries and parent companies shall be adjusted.
12. Provision shall be made to abolish double reporting of the same data to Health Insurance Companies, both by the employer and the Social Insurance Company (e.g. if the employee is receiving sickness benefits).
13. The obligation for s.r.o. companies, which do not have an audit obligation, to submit an audit of the company to The Commercial Court on the occasion of the capital increase will be abolished.
14. It shall be adopted that the laws governing taxes and levies will be amended with effect from 1.1.
15. In the Labour Code the maximum duration of a fixed-term employment relationship shall be extended from two to three years, whereby the fixed-term employment relationship can be prolonged or renegotiated up to three times within three years.

These legislative changes were proposed and most of them accepted but with a different date of effectiveness.

Initially, these proposals also included a change in the areas of meal tickets and introduction of the possibility to replace meal tickets with financial compensation. However, this issue was postponed to the autumn, when a second package of measures is supposed to be introduced.