We bring you the coverage of the first precautionary measures adopted by the Slovak Government. We strive to make a daily monitor and endeavour to keep you updated about the newest adopted measures and to indicate you how the measures are to be applied to the usual business life.

SOCIAL MATTERS

1. Attendance allowance in the state of emergency

The age limit of children for the parental attendance allowance was changed. A parent can claim the attendance allowance for the child until its 11th birthday instead of the previous 10th birthday and, for the handicapped child, until its 18th birthday.  No medical confirmation will be required for this age category.

Based on the medical confirmation, a parent can claim the attendance allowance for the child until its 16th birthday.

Attendance allowance can be claimed during the whole time of school closure. The allowance will be paid  during the whole period of drawing 55% of gross wage. The allowance can be alternatively claimed by both parents.

2. Sick pay in quarantine

Entitlement to sick pay will be confirmed by a physician. The daily sick pay will be 55%  of the assessment base from the very first day on. The allowance will be paid by the Social Insurance Agency from the first day on. This measure will reduce the burden of employer´s duty to compensate for the employee´s income for the first 10 days.

The employee´s sick pay can only be claimed if the employee does not work and is not paid by his/her employer for his/her work. Such employee can get a remuneration for a different performance than the work – e.g. an employer can be paid for the work he/she had done before the school closure. Such employee cannot be paid by another employer, as he/she is in quarantine and cannot work. However, an employee can earn money as a businessman if working in home office (as a free-lancer).

Evidence of incapacity to work (the so-called slip of money) – confirming that a temporary incapacity to work will be prolonged to the next month. Under normal circumstances, such evidence will be issued by the physician upon patient´s request and sent to the district branch of the Social Insurance Agency. As for the confirmation on temporary incapacity to work issued in connection with coronavirus, patients are currently not required to attend his/her physician and  to submit the confirmation to the Social Insurance Agency. The evidence of temporary incapacity to work (the so-called slip of money) will be sent to the Social Insurance Agency by the doctor.

Patients on temporary sick leaves with diagnoses different than those of coronavirus, will send the confirmation of incapacity to work in a standard manner (by mail or into the mailbox at the branch), i.e. the doctor will not send the confirmation himself/herself.

3. Job protection allowance

The allowance can be claimed by each employer which fulfils conditions. The basic condition is to preserve the job after the job protection allowance has been paid.

The allowance can be claimed by the employer which had to shut down the business due to the decision by the Central Crisis Unit. The claim will be applicable in the emergency period and in the specified number of months after the end of the emergency period.

The allowance can also be claimed by the employer enforced to shut down or to restrict the business due to reduced sales, loss of orders or, due to problems on the part of contractors (subsuppliers). The claim will be applicable in the emergency period and in the specified number of months after the end of the emergency period.

4. Aid to free-lancers

Each free-lancer (self-employed persons, artists, self-employed farmers, etc.) can claim the allowance if he/she meets the conditions. The basic condition is to continue in his/her business after the end of emergency period.

Any free-lancer can claim the allowance after he/she had to shut down business due to the decision by the Central Crisis Unit. The claim will be applicable in the emergency period and in the specified number of months after the end of the emergency period.

A free-lancer can also claim the allowance after he/she had to shut down business due to reduced sales, loss of orders or, due to problems on the part of contractors (subsuppliers). The claim will be applicable in the emergency period and in the specified number of months after the end of the emergency period.

JURISDICTION

Based on the Act on Extraordinary Measures Relating to the Spread of Dangerous Infectious Human Disease COVID-19 and in the Jurisdiction (hereinafter the “Law”), the following measures have been adopted with the aim to enable citizens and businessmen to exercise their rights in the court more simply:

1. Limitation periods, preclusions (forfeitures) and procedural time-limits will be interrupted until 30 April 2020, i.e. for example debt prescribe – if the prescription period started in the time since 12 March 2020, the prescription period will be postponed provided that the period will not expire within 30 days after the date of commencement of the Law. This applies to procedural deadlines, e.g. a possibility to appeal against the decision, etc.
2. In the extraordinary situation or in case of national state of emergency the courts of justice will solely conduct main procedures, court proceedings and public hearings to the extent necessary (mainly in criminal matters and custody of children). In line with the new regulations, the public can be excluded from the court procedures due to the threat to the life and health. Such public-free court hearing must be recorded, and the sound recording must be made available to the public.
3. Bodies of legal entities governed by private law like corporates, cooperatives, civil associations, foundations, etc. can adopt decisions per rollam, i.e. they can vote outside the meeting or via electronic means even if this voting procedure is not defined in their internal regulations or statute.
4. In the period up to 30 April 2020, enforcement of a pledge, foreclosure and other property sales by execution houses, bailiffs and insolvency administrators is prohibited under the threat of annulment of such legal actions.
5. The Law established an exemption from registration with the Register of Public Sector Partners for the public procurement of goods like respiratory protection, respirators and testing sets, etc. what makes the procurement process more flexible at the time of extraordinary situation and state of emergency.
6. Suspension of telecommunication secrecy – by means of utilization of the data of mobile operators the Law will enable to target corona-testing of citizens more precisely. This is a chance to increase the protection of all of us. Location data (detecting the place and time of the mobile device) will be forwarded to the Public Health Authority. No operational data will be forwarded, i.e. who called which person and the length of calls, etc.
7. Obligatory petition deadline for a debtor will be extended to 60 days, provided that the deadline was extended between 12 March and 30 April 2020.

TAXES

1. Income tax return and tax payment based on the income tax return.

All natural persons and legal entities can submit their income tax returns to be submitted (including the extended deadline) to 31 March 2020, 30 April 2020 or 31 May 2020, and pay taxes according to their income tax returns until 30 June 2020 without any prior notice and without penalty.

The automatic deadline extension also applies to persons and entities which have submitted their tax returns but have not paid the taxes yet.

The above regulation applies to income taxes for the following tax periods:

• the year of 2019,
• business year of 01.10. 2018 – 30.09. 2019 provided the submission deadline was extended to 31 March 2020, based on prior notice submitted until 31 December 2019,
• business year of 01.11. 2018 – 31.10.2019 provided the submission deadline was extended to 31.3.2020 or 30.4.2020 based on prior notice submitted until 31.1.2020,
• business year of 1.12.2018 – 30.11.2019 provided the submission deadline was extended to 31.3.2020, 30.4.2020 or 30.5.2020 based on prior notice submitted until 29.2.2020.

If a taxpayer has got incomes from abroad and wants to extend the deadline until 30 September 2020, the taxpayer must apply for deadline extension until 31 March 2020, according to  § 49 par. 3 letter b) of the Income Tax Act.

A revised tax return can only be submitted within the “correct” deadline or in the deadline extension based on the taxpayer´s prior notification.

A business company going into liquidation on 1 February 2020, can submit the tax return and pay the tax after 30 April 2020 without any sanction and without a prior application for deadline extension for the tax return.

Please note that the above measures do not apply to advance tax payment!

Please note that if a taxpayer states an overpaid amount in his/her income tax return, such taxpayer should submit the tax return as soon as possible in order to avoid delayed reimbursement. 

We recommend - despite the existence of the institute of remission of the penalty - to correctly apply for the deadline extension according to § 49 par. 3 of the Income Tax Act. The “correct” application for deadline extension is more favourable for the following reasons:

• application for deadline extension for tax return enables to the natural person or legal entity to donate 2% of the tax (precondition for donation of 2% of the tax is to submit the tax return within time periods stipulated by law). Automatic remission of the penalty according to the Governmental Ordinance No. 48/2020 Coll. will have no influence on fulfilment of the above precondition and we do not know whether this issue will be governed by the amended Income Tax Act.
• Governmental Ordinance No. 48/2020 Coll. does not apply to financial statements as they are not added to the income tax return but separately submitted. Should a taxpayer not apply for deadline extension for the tax return and not submit the financial statement, the taxpayer could be penalized according to the Tax Code.
• A taxpayer can still pay the advance tax  at the amount calculated according to his/her/its  2018 tax return (of course, if the advance tax payment until the tax return deadline  is lower than the new amount). A taxpayer can thus avoid submission of application for determination of advance tax in a different way, provided the taxpayer wants to reduce advance tax. A taxpayer cannot avoid submission of application, if the taxpayer wants to pay 0 Eur advance tax.

2. Obligation of medical care providers to withhold and pay tax and to notify accordingly

Financial authority will not penalize delayed notifications about withhold and paid taxes for the year of 2019 and for non-payment of the tax to medical care providers within the given period up to 31 March 2020, provided that the obligation will be met until 30 June 2020.

If a taxpayer´s tax period is a business year and the taxpayer has received extended deadline for tax return until 31 March 2020, such taxpayer can utilize the automatic remission of the penalty provided the taxpayer submits the tax revenue and the tax amount will be paid - instead of in March - until 30 June 2020.

3. Tax registrations

Tax registration of tax subject is neither amended, nor changed by CORONA measures.

TIP FOR CLIENTS

Fine-tuning of a possibility of taking simple credits from the Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank is running. At this stage, we recommend to follow the website of the Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank on  https://www.szrb.sk/ every day, as such credits will be limited.

CONCLUSION:

We permanently monitor the situation. In case of new facts, we will inform you on time. Should you have any questions or requirements, please contact the professional team of the company VGD SLOVAKIA s.r.o. or the law firm VGD Legal s.r.o. which will be happy to advise you in the above areas.

For more information, please visit our website, Facebook or Linked-In.

VGD Legal s.r.o.

JUDr. Lucia Kalabová, lawyer

Note: The information provided are of 26.03.2020 and of informative character and do not substitute a legal service according to the Act on Advocacy No. 586 / 2003 Coll. VGD Legal s.r.o. is not liable for completeness and accuracy of the information covered in the article. Should a subscriber have any question to information provided, the subscriber can ask VGD Legal s.r.o. for legal services accordingly.