The Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic submitted a draft amendment Act amending Act No 57/2018 Coll., on regional investment aid, and supplementing Act No 595/2003 Coll. on income tax. This draft Act has been approved on 1 December 2020 by the National Council of the Slovak Republic and responds to the situation arising in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of this pandemic on the recipients of investment aid, as well as their ability to fulfil the obligations arising from the decision to provide or approve investment aid.
According to the explanatory memorandum, the ambition of the approved amendment to the Act is not to provide assistance to beneficiaries beyond the other measures relating to the coronavirus crisis. Its main purpose is to moderate certain conditions of investment aid from the material and time point of view in individual regions. These changes are, for example, the extension of the period for the acquisition of assets in accordance with the decision on investment aid from the original 12 to 24 months, or the time limit for the completion of an investment project from the original 3 to 5 years. The above provisions of the approved Act will apply to proceedings in which the beneficiary’s obligations arose after 12 March 2020.
The approved changes to the Income Tax Act concern the application of tax relief. According to the current version of the act, a taxpayer may, subject to meeting certain conditions, claim a tax relief for approved investment aid for a maximum of 10 immediately consecutive taxable periods. This Act introduces transitional provisions, on the basis of which the period from 2020 to 2022, i.e. the three immediately following taxable periods, the first of which began in 2020, will not be included in the period for relief application. This change will apply to taxpayers to whom a decision approving investment aid was issued by 31 December 2020, and, at the same time, who may apply tax relief even after 31 December 2019.
