Volkswagen Slovakia tops the list of biggest taxpayers in Slovakia. (source: Courtesy of Volkswagen Slovakia)
Carmaker Volkswagen Slovakia, steelworks U.S. Steel Košice and gas transmitter Eustream paid the most taxes in 2016.
This stems from an analysis authored by the tax and audit advisory company BMB Leitner, which analysed the 200 biggest non-financial companies from the TOP 200 list compiled by the Trend economic weekly. One of its most important findings is that German and Austrian companies comprise the strongest group among foreign investors, with the biggest share of paid direct taxes.
“The list doesn’t confirm the theory that foreign investors pay nearly no taxes in Slovakia because they often receive various kinds of tax relief,” Renáta Bláhová, partner of BMB Leitner and the author of the study, told The Slovak Spectator.
What did the analysis show?
The analysis is based on the principle Ultimate Parent Company. This means that the affiliation of a subsidiary in Slovakia was assessed based on the actual headquarters of the parent company and not its formally registered headquarters.
Moreover, unlike previous lists that usually evaluated only the corporate tax amount, the one by BMB Leitner analysed other taxes companies have to pay in Slovakia, including income tax on employees, compulsory payroll taxes and, in some cases, a special levy for selected industries.
The first 50 companies paid nearly €2.5 billion to the state coffers in 2016. Slovak companies paid €892.15 million in total in corporate, income and payroll taxes in 2015. German companies followed with €818.48 million and Austrian companies with €447.4 million.
