Measures in the field of financing and taxation, and measures related to social and health insurance contributions

A selection of approved and upcoming measures designed to support the maintenance of operation, intended mainly for SMEs, to overcome the decline in revenues.

Financial measures

The first is financial assistance to mitigate the negative consequences of a pandemic and to support the maintenance of operations in small or medium-sized enterprises by the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic in the form of a bank loan guarantee and interest payment on a bank loan). The definition of small and medium-sized enterprises can be found in the European Commission Regulation no. 651/2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty.

Financial assistance is provided through institutions such as the ExIm Bank of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank. Slovak Investment Holding is also working on their financial assistance program.

In principle, it is necessary to fulfil several conditions, from which we mainly choose:

• A small employer shall not have arrears to the social and health insurance overdue more than 180 days
• A small employer must not be subject to bankruptcy or restructuring
• A small employer must meet other conditions determined by the bank

For loans provided by a bank, it is possible to request a deferral of a maximum of 9 months, for loans granted by non-banking creditors or leasing companies, it is possible to request a deferral of instalments by 3 months with an extension of another 3 months. Payments deferral can take 3 forms:

• Deferral of principal amount
• Deferral of principal amount with interest
• One-off deferred loan.

During the time of the deferred instalments, the creditor shall receive interest. It is not allowed to charge a fee for allowing the deferral or to make it subject to ordering any other services.
The basic conditions for granting a deferral include:

• a debtor must not be in delay with the repayment of the loan for which it is requests the postponement of the repayment for more than 30 days prior to the submission of the application;
• a debtor must not be in default of repayment of another loan from the same creditor for more than 30 days prior to the application of € 100 or more;
• a debtor must not be in a state of default (what is a default is defined in the EU Special Regulation No 575/2013)
• The application must be duly completed and be in compliance with the given sample

The sample application is provisionally modified in the newly adopted Act no. 75/2020 Coll. (amending the Act no. 67/2020 Coll.), however, banks and other creditors are preparing their own infrastructure for submitting these applications. We will be pleased to provide you with more information after publishing specific adopted laws, decrees or measures.

Tax Measures

In the tax area we are presenting the following adopted measures, the backbone of which was adopted by law no. 67/2020 Z.z .:

• The deadline for filing the tax return to be filed during the pandemic (which began on 12 March 2020) is postponed to the last day of the month following the end of the pandemic;
• At the request of the taxpayer, the tax inspection or tax procedure shall be suspended for the duration of the pandemic; this does not apply to excessive deduction or refund procedure
• The amount of the overdue tax within the period of the pandemic until the end of the month following the end of the pandemic shall not be considered as a tax arrears;

Social and health insurance contributions measures

The measures were adopted by Act no. 68/2020 Coll. A postponement of the maturity of most social and health contributions applies, where the employer reports a year-on-year decline in net turnover or a decrease in business income of 40% or more.