Effective April 1, 2025, a new tax applies to certain financial transactions (transaction tax) in Slovakia. The tax has been introduced under the recently adopted Act No. 279/2024 Coll. on Financial Transaction Tax and on Amendment to and Supplementation of Certain Acts, as amended (the “Financial Transaction Tax Act”), which came into force on January 1, 2025.

The Financial Transaction Tax Act applies to:

• a sole entrepreneur (self-employed individual),
• legal entity, and
• branch office of foreign legal entity

which uses payment services provided by a payment services provider performing financial transactions (i.e., a transaction account), and to which at least one of the following applies:

• has the registered office or place of business in Slovakia,

• has a transaction account with a payment services provider having the registered office in Slovakia (e.g., a foreign company having the registered office outside Slovakia uses a bank account maintained by a Slovak bank branch), or

• conducts activities in Slovakia (e.g., a foreign company, having the registered office outside Slovakia and using a foreign bank account, conducts activities in Slovakia – in such a case, only transactions related to its activities in Slovakia are subject to the transaction tax).

In general, the transaction tax is levied on all outgoing payments, cash withdrawals, and recharged costs associated with financial transactions performed in relation to the taxpayer’s activities conducted in Slovakia, subject to certain exemptions specified in the Financial Transaction Tax Act. For example, payment transactions related to payments of taxes, social security and health insurance contributions, payments by card (also see below), transfers of funds into the taxpayer’s another account held at the same provider/bank; are not subject to the transaction tax.

The following tax rates apply, depending on the type of transaction that takes place on a taxpayer’s transaction account:

• Debit transactions, i.e., financial transactions involving outgoing funds transfers from the taxpayer’s transaction account: a tax rate of 0.4% of the funds debited from the taxpayer’s transaction account, capped at EUR 40 per financial transaction.

• Cash withdrawals (e.g., at an ATM or a bank branch): a tax rate of 0.8% of the funds withdrawn from the taxpayer’s transaction account, with no cap per financial transaction.

• Recharged costs (e.g., in cases where the parent company pays costs for its subsidiary and subsequently recharges the subsidiary for the costs): a tax rate of 0.4% of the amount of the financial transaction related to the taxpayer’s activity conducted in Slovakia, executed by an entity other than the taxpayer and recharged to the taxpayer by that entity. On condition that the taxpayer is able to demonstrate what transactions the recharged amount consists of, a tax amount is capped at EUR 40 per transaction.

• The use of a payment card connected to the taxpayer’s transaction account is subject to a tax of EUR 2 per calendar year in which the card is used.

The payment services providers, or in certain cases directly the taxpayers, are required to calculate, collect and pay the transaction tax to the tax authority by the end of the calendar month following the month in which the relevant transactions took place (i.e., on a monthly basis).