Amendment to the Value Added Tax Act

| Reading Time: 3 Min

 

On the 6th of December 2022, the National Council of the Slovak Republic (the “NC SR”) also approved an amendment to the Value Added Tax Act (the “VAT Act”), which we informed you about it in our previous Newsletter. The amendment to the VAT Act was approved in the revised version because some of the initial proposed changes were not approved or were approved in an edited version.

 

We would like to provide you with a brief overview of the most important additions and changes to the VAT Act:

  • the VAT Act amendment brings a change in Section 53b, which introduces an obligation for the customer to make a correction of the deducted VAT on purchased goods or services, in the price of which VAT has been applied, unless the customer settles the obligation in part or in full within 100 days after its due date.

 

  • for a temporary period from 1st January 2023 to 31st March 2023, a reduced VAT rate of 10% will apply to selected services. Specifically, this applies to the transport of persons by land cableways and ski lifts, to the provision of covered and uncovered sports facilities, artificial swimming pools as well as restaurant and catering services. The aim of this measure is to support regional economies, to make these activities more accessible to the general public and to support the restaurant and catering sector.

 

  • The amendment also introduces an obligation to file a tax return for an entity that has failed to comply with the obligation to apply for VAT registration or that has applied for registration late. The change is in the length of the period for which an extraordinary tax return is filed. If the delay is more than 21 days, the entity has an obligation to file one tax return for a period, in which the entity should have been a taxable person. This obligation shall apply to a taxable person who has his registered office, place of business, establishment, residence or usually stays in the territory of the Slovak Republic.

 

  • Waiver of the obligation to register as a VAT payer after exceeding a turnover of EUR 49,790 if the taxable entity exclusively supplies goods or services that are exempt from VAT.

 

  • Other changes aimed at reducing the administrative burden and eliminating some of the shortcomings of the act that have arisen from application in practice. These include, for example, a more detailed explanation of what constitutes a consignment of a small nature, the import of which is exempt from VAT, for the purposes of the VAT Act; a new definition of an irrecoverable debt; the method for determining the amount of the correction of deducted tax on the theft of goods specified by the act; the abolition of the obligation to submit a nil tax return in the case of the first customer under a triangular trade scheme; a change of the time limit for payment of tax on the acquisition of a new means of transport from another Member State; alignment of the procedure for charging interest on late payment of tax on imports of goods with charging interest on customs debt.

 

  • With effect from 1st January 2024, a new record-keeping obligation is introduced for payment service providers through which payments for delivered goods or services are made – this change is primarily due to the transposition of the EU Council Directive, the main objective of which is to combat tax evasion arising from cross-border e-commerce, where situations arise when the customer is located in one EU Member State and the supplier of goods or services is located in another Member State, or in a third country, with the entire purchase being made in the online space.

The amendment to this Act takes effect from 1st January 2023, except for the record-keeping obligation for selected payment service providers, which will take effect from 1st January 2024.

<< back to Newsletter