Entrepreneurs’ Telegram March 2025

Newsletter – 17.03.2026

Dear Clients and Partners,

In this edition of the mailingLeitner Slovakia, we bring you an overview of key information and updates in the area of international taxation.

We would like to draw your attention to the following changes:

2025 Corporate Income Tax return form – transactions with related parties in detail
New Top-up tax compliance obligations, with the first filings due already in 2026
Changes to Double Tax Treaties with the Slovak Republic, which may affect taxation in the case of cross-border home office arrangements
Withholding tax obligations applicable to software payments or payments made to suppliers from non-cooperative jurisdictions, e.g. Russia
News regarding refunds of withholding tax on dividends and interest
Automatic exchange of information in relation to income from crypto-assets

Transfer pricing documentation scope under the new rules

The new guidance, which also applies to the 2025 tax period, introduces changes to shortened documentation and significantly expands the reporting of transactions with related parties directly in the Corporate Income Tax Return.

Taxpayers who are not required to maintain full-scope or basic documentation will fulfil their documentation obligation by completing Table I of the tax return. If the taxpayer fails to fulfil this obligation, shortened documentation must be prepared in the structure set out in the annex to the guidance.

All taxpayers with transactions with related parties must complete a much more detailed data structure already in the 2025 tax return. Transactions must be reported separately for each related party and, in addition to the value of the transaction, the exact type of transaction must also be stated according to a classification comprising 34 categories.

This change therefore places greater demands on taxpayers and on the proper identification and classification of individual transactions, while at the same time enabling the tax authorities to identify risky transactions more effectively and monitor their year-on-year development.

Therefore, when filing the tax return, in addition to quantifying the transactions, it is important to:

identify the individual transactions and classify them correctly into the relevant categories;
identify business partners properly, including not only their name but also information on their tax residence; note that this is not the same as the company’s registered seat;
set up internal processes for the continuous collection of data going forward.

Top-up Tax – first deadlines already in 2026

Slovak taxpayers that are part of groups to which the top-up tax applies will, for the first time, be required to file a tax return and a notification containing information necessary for its determination for the year 2024, by the end of June 2026.

The tax return form must be filed by every taxpayer that is part of a group in Slovakia, even if the top-up tax is zero (e.g. where the safe harbour exemption applies).

The form for filing the notification containing information for the determination of the top-up tax is based on the annex to the DAC9 Directive (EU). It is an extensive notification requiring not only information on the group, but also information necessary for the calculation of exemptions, the effective tax rate and the top-up tax itself. DAC9 itself, implemented in Slovakia as of January 1, 2026, simplifies the filing of information notifications and the exchange of information between individual jurisdictions.

Slovak entities must therefore prepare in time to fulfil the local obligation to file the tax return and the notification, or, where applicable, to notify which group entity will file the information notification, as these deadlines cannot be extended.

The Pillar Two rules changed in connection with the G7 meeting in June 2025, where the G7 issued a joint statement leading to a compromise regarding U.S. multinational groups. As a result, the U.S. minimum tax rules (GILTI) will “co-exist” with the Pillar Two rules, however, U.S. multinational groups may apply certain exemptions from Pillar Two.

Last but not least, the Slovak Top-up Tax Act itself was also amended, with effect from January 1, 2026, implementing the administrative guidance to the OECD Global Model Rules. The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic publishes on its website not only Slovak materials, but also OECD documents and rules relating to Pillar Two: Minimálne efektívne zdanenie – pilier 2 | Ministerstvo financií Slovenskej republiky. It is highly likely that the Top-up Tax Act will be subject to further amendments in the future.

Double Tax Treaties

Another change is the update to the OECD Model Tax Convention of November 18, 2025. Slovak entities may be affected by the revised interpretation regarding the assessment of a permanent establishment in the case of cross-border work from home (home office) or another relevant location. The new Commentary to Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention contains examples of when a home office constitutes a place of business and therefore leads to the creation of a permanent establishment.

The changes to the Commentary also clarify the interpretation of transfer pricing rules for financial transactions, as well as the issue of the subsequent deductibility of interest in the contracting states. In addition, the Slovak Republic withdrew its reservations concerning the interpretation of how software payments should be classified, as well as their tax treatment. The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic has also issued new guidance in this respect.

We therefore recommend assessing the conditions for the creation of a permanent establishment if your employees work from another country under a home office arrangement and also reviewing the contractual arrangements for financing and software payments considering these changes.

In addition, in 2025 Slovakia signed new Double Tax Treaties with Kyrgyzstan and protocols with Iran, Moldova and Brazil. As of January 2025, amendments to the Double Tax Treaty with Germany entered into force in connection with the Multilateral Instrument (MLI), with the most significant change concerning the resolution of tax disputes with Germany.

The EU also updated its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes in February 2026: EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes – Consilium. We recommend paying increased attention to payments made to some of these jurisdictions, e.g. Russia, as they may trigger an obligation to withhold tax in Slovakia at a rate of 35%.

Simplification of refunds of withholding tax on dividends and interests

Another change in the area of international taxation in Slovakia will be the implementation of the FASTER Directive (EU), which entered into force in January 2025 and must be transposed by the Member States by December 31, 2028, with its rules becoming applicable from January 1, 2030. The aim of the FASTER Directive is to accelerate and simplify the refund of withholding tax on dividends and interests. This should be achieved through the introduction of an EU digital tax residence certificate with standardised content and automated issuance, the acceleration of procedures for granting withholding tax relief in the source state, or the faster refund of withheld tax, as well as through the establishment of national registers of certified financial intermediaries.

Obligation to report information on income from crypto-assets to the tax authorities

An amendment to the Act on Automatic Exchange of Information transposed the DAC8 Directive (EU), which extends the framework for automatic exchange of information to crypto-assets, electronic money and central bank digital currencies. The aim of DAC8 is to increase tax transparency and enable the tax authorities to monitor income from crypto-assets. It introduces an obligation for crypto-asset service providers to report information to the tax authorities, which will exchange such information with the authorities of EU Member States and treaty states. The amendment entered into force on January 1, 2026.

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