Businesses will be able to verify the credibility of their business partners on the website of the Financial Administration of Slovakia, which publishes a list of payers of value added tax (VAT) for whom a reason exists for the cancellation of their VAT registration. As of the beginning of this week, the list of risky VAT payers will include 1,402 entities, whereby the Financial Administration registers more than 205,000 VAT-payers.

"That does not mean that this list includes all entities that we consider risky. However, it is definitely true that we consider risky those entities that made it on this list," said the President of the Financial
Administration František Imrecze on Monday, February 4, as quoted by the SITA newswire. According to Imrecze, the new list will be a service for entrepreneurs, as they will be able to check the credibility of their partners. "If they are doing business with an entity that is on this list, then certainly businesspeople cannot consider it a trusted partner," said Imrecze. Of the 1,402 entities currently on the list, for example, 1,098
have tax arrears totalling more than €143 million. Most entities on the current list, 350, are from Bratislava, while 306 of them are from Košice.

According to Imrecze, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice, the Financial Administration is preparing additional measures that will improve the risk analysis of VAT payers. The Financial Administration is currently examining about three thousand other firms, which may end up on the risky VAT payers list, for which a reason for de-registration occurred. Director General of the Tax and Customs Directorate Daniel Čech said they would update the list on a monthly basis. Currently the tax authority is unable to remove an entity from the list once it has been legitimately placed on it.

According to the law adopted last year to fight tax fraud, the Tax Office may withdraw VAT registration if the taxpayer ceased doing business during a calendar year or has repeatedly failed to fulfil its obligation to file a tax return. The tax authority can also withdraw VAT registration if the taxpayer repeatedly fails to pay his tax liability, is repeatedly unreachable at the registered office or repeatedly violates its obligations during a tax audit.

(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.