(source: Sme)
Tax return day came and went in Slovakia amid the strictest anti-coronavirus measures at the end of March. As a relief for employees, self-employed and companies hit by the pandemic, the government postponed the deadline to file tax returns and the subsequent obligation to pay corporate and income taxes for 2019.
The postponement concerned all businesses in Slovakia and applied automatically, with no requirements for businesses to notify the tax authorities. As the second wave of the pandemic materialises in Slovakia and the state sees the gap in the budget widen, the Finance Ministry has set the deadline for filing the 2019 tax returns. It has pledged to submit the due legislation to the parliament later in September, to be passed in a short-tracked procedure to make it effective in time for the set deadline.
The Slovak Spectator lists five things there are to know about paying taxes for 2019:
1. The deadline for tax returns has been set
The Finance Ministry has set the deadline for submitting income tax returns for 2019 on October 31, 2020. It is still not known whether taxpayers will be also obliged to settle their tax obligations until this deadline.
“We will inform the public in time,” the press department of the Finance Ministry assured.
The law, dubbed “Lex Corona”, was passed in March to postpone the duty to file income tax returns for 2019 and linked the new deadline to the further unspecified end of the pandemic. It suggested that the returns must be submitted and taxes must be paid during the month that follows the one when the end of the pandemic was declared.
After the second wave of the pandemic hit Slovakia and Europe, the end of the pandemic no longer worked as a possible deadline. Hence, the Finance Ministry decided to terminate the emergency situation for the purpose of filing tax returns for 2019.
