Income tax in Slovakia is provided for by the Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income tax and its later amendments.  

Some facts on the income tax:

Both, corporate bodies and natural persons :

- Income tax rate in Slovakia is uniform both for corporate bodies and natural person -– 19%;

- dividends paid out of profits earned on or after 1 January 2004 are not subject to tax in Slovakia

- corporate bodies and natural persons can utilize a tax loss over a maximum of seven consecutive tax periods following the period in which they reported the loss;  

- each corporate body or natural person, who is entitled to carry out business activities in Slovakia, is  obliged to register for income tax and do that not later than 30 days from the date the permission to carry out business activities in Slovakia is granted by local tax administrator. Registration and report obligation within this deadline also applies to each natural person, which began to conduct other self-employment activities, or rented a real estate. Registration obligation within a 30 days’ period also applies to founding permanent establishments in Slovakia;

- tax period is a calendar year; 

- tax returns must be filed within three months following the end of the taxable period. Corporate bodies and natural persons may file a request to the tax administrator to extend filing deadline by up to three months, or if a part of the income reported is from sources abroad, the filing deadline may be extended up to 6 months. The announcement  has to be submitted in written form, latest by  normal filing deadline. Corporate bodies may change the tax period from a calendar year to the so-called fiscal year, which represents 12 consequent calendar months, and which is not consonant with a calendar year; 

- in case of closing down a permanent establishment in Slovakia, taxpayer is obliged to file a tax return by the end of the month following the month of the close-down; 

-  since 1^st January 2009, tangible fixed assets for tax purposes have been defined as any tangible property with the acquisition price higher than 1,700 € and with the usable life no shorter than one year. Such assets are classified into tax depreciation groups to which different tax depreciation periods apply.

The law enables to claim tax depreciation on either straight-line or accelerated basis. The rates in the table are valid for straight-line method. 

- intangible fixed assets, according to the Act on Income Tax, is any property of intangible nature  with the acquisition price higher than 2,400 €and  with the usable life of at least one year. Intangible fixed assets are depreciated based on the actual usage period and it is equal with the accounting depreciation; 

- in case of tangible assets obtained via financial leasing, the tax depreciation period equals the leasing period;

- land is excluded from depreciation. 

Only natural persons:

 - personal allowances for the individuals, whose tax base is lower than 15,387.12 €, have been 4,025.70 € a year ( 335.47 € a month) since 1^st March 2009;  if the tax base is higher than 15,387.12 € , the personal allowance is progressively reduced to nil and those individuals with an annual tax base exceeding 31,489.92 € are not entitled to any personal allowance;

- annual tax bonus for dependent children for the year 2010 has been set to 240.12 € ( 20 € / month for the period 1-7/10 + 20,02 € / month for the period 7-12/10);

- in 2009 an individual may claim a  dependent spouse allowance of up to 4,025.70 € annually. The spouse has to share the household and his/her actual annual income must not exceed 4,025.70 €. If the spouse has annual income of up to 4,025.70 €, personal allowance is reduced by the actual income. Spouse allowance may be claimed provided that the individual’s income doesn’t exceed 31,489.92 € in 2009. If it does, the available spouse allowance is progressively reduced;

- self-employed individuals

self-employed individuals, including sole proprietors, artists, lawyers, veterinary surgeons, etc, may choose between stating the tax base based on bookkeeping, via flat deductions or since 1^stMarch 2009 also via keeping the so-called simplified records similar to classical bookkeeping; 

-         in case of bookkeeping it is worth mentioning the possibility to claim tax expenses in the form of business trip expenses,  both at home or abroad, similar to those in case of employees, see the section “travel reimbursement”, possibility to claim food allowance of up to 3.60 € per day, certainly based on actual invoice for the luncheon vouchers or a receipt from a restaurant facility; 

-         if the individual uses private vehicle for business purposes and the vehicle has not been included in company’s assets,  the individual is entitled for the fuel reimbursement calculated based on the consumption stated by the vehicle registration document, and a lump sum based on number of kilometres made, as stated in the section “travel reimbursement”;

-         or, if the individual uses a vehicle, which is included in company’s assets, tax expense is a value of consumed fuel but only up to the limit stated by the vehicle registration document. In this case it is necessary to keep the so-called logbook to substantiate the mileage;

 Since 1^st March 2009, fuel may be substantiated by some new methods. The new options come in the form of a satellite surveillance system, which monitors the vehicle and the fuel expenses are exercised based on purchase receipts, but maximum to the level substantiated by the surveillance device. The individual does not have to keep the logbook also in case he makes claim of 80% of fuel purchase proven by receipts, acceptable mileage shown by car computer at the beginning and at the end of the tax period. These three fuel claim options in tax expenses are available for both natural persons as well as corporate bodies.

-         If the individual decides for the so-called flat deductions, these are deducted on the level of 40% from the tax base, or 60% in case of crafts, plus paid insurance contributions in both cases.  This option is only available to those individuals who are not VAT payers.