Mazars CEE tax guide 2023

This guide, which has grown from covering 15 countries in 2013 to 25 in 2023, delves into a broad spectrum of tax issues, focusing on corporate income taxation, transfer pricing, employment, and sales taxes.

We have also published the report on a special interactive online platform as a comprehensive web guide. In addition to online country profiles, country-specific materials allow comparisons with respect to certain aspects of tax systems.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Mazars CEE Tax Guide

In recent years, in Slovakia, we have witnessed rather „cosmetic“ changes to our most important tax laws, which are undoubtedly: the Income Tax Act and the Value Added Tax Act. Nevertheless, since their enactment in 2003, and in 2004 respectively, these two laws have been amended more than 150-times together.

Kvetoslava Čavajdová, partner of the tax advisory department at Mazars in Slovakia comments on this situation as follows: "At a time when we are facing the current energy, geopolitical and financial crisis, it is undoubtedly difficult to keep up with the changing tax legislation and to thoroughly perceive all enacted changes and tax initiatives, namely not only locally, but also internationally."

We believe that, in addition to our year-round work, our latest regional tax guide, which was prepared by tax experts from Mazars branches in Central and Eastern Europe, will help you navigate the tangle of basic Slovak and foreign tax rules.

The aim of this publication is for the eleventh time to provide an overview of the basic characteristics of tax systems in our entire region – this year with data for up to 25 countries. In addition to the Visegrad Four, the tax guide includes the countries of Southeast Europe, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and the Baltic states. In 2023, Mazars branches in Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan) also contributed for the first time.

This year's edition of the tax guide contains information on tax systems in the wording of regulations valid at the end of January 2023.

The publication also compares the basic factors of competitiveness in the region

What are the factors involved? These primarily include the scale of employment taxes and contributions: in addition to listing the relevant tax and contribution rates, we also provide examples for various salary levels and family statuses.

Other key factors are the rates and special features of value added tax, as well as the corporate income tax system (e.g. tax allowances for research and development activities or loss carry-forward regulations, group taxation, interest deduction limitations, etc.). Moreover, readers are also provided a quick overview of the main features of each country’s transfer pricing regulations.

The most significant changes from 2023 for Slovakia

1. The amendment to the Income Tax Act brought several amendments to the provisions in the area of transfer pricing and determining the tax base (tax loss) of foreign taxpayers who carry out activities on the territory of the Slovak Republic and do not have the obligation to keep accounts according to the Slovak accounting regulations.
2. With effect from 1 January 2024, the rules of Council Directive (EU) 2016/1164 (the so-called "ATAD Directive") are being implemented into Slovak legislation. The new rules concern the limitation of net interest costs (exceeding borrowing costs) to be included in the tax base, while the limitation will apply to taxpayers whose net interest costs, i.e. the difference between borrowing costs and taxable revenues in the relevant tax period is more than EUR 3,000,000.
3. In the field of value added tax, the most significant change can be considered the introduction of the obligation of the customer – the VAT payer to correct the tax deducted from the purchased goods and services, from the purchase of which he claimed the tax deduction, in the event that he did not pay them to the supplier, or he paid them only partially, and at the same time 100 days have passed since the due date of the given obligation.

Before making any strategic business decision, a discussion and detailed analysis is always required. For this purpose, we have included the direct contact details of our branches and experts in the guide. You can contact Mazars experts in Slovakia with any questions or ambiguities.