Coronavirus in Slovenia: News on taxes, salaries and social security contributions

​published on 5 April 2020 | reading time approx. 3 minutes

I. Actions in accordance with the tax-procedure act (“ZDavP-2”)

Before the current "coronavirus crisis", the following actions were envisaged, with which the fulfilment of the tax payment obligation of a legal entity could, could be reduced to a certain extent:
 
a) Payment of taxes in a maximum of 24 monthly instalments or deferral for a period of 24 months in accordance with Art. 102 para. 1 ZDavP-2, whereby the criterion of serious economic damage must be identified by the legal entity;

 
b) Payment of taxes in a maximum of 60 monthly instalments in accordance with Art. 102 para. 2 ZDavP-2, whereby this solution is only intended for medium-sized and large companies. The criterion for serious economic damage doesn’t need to be specified, but a final decision on a confirmed financial restructuring agreement or a decision on a confirmed simplified forced settlement must be submitted;

 
c) Payment of taxes in a maximum of 24 monthly instalments or deferment for a period of 24 months in accordance with Art. 103 Para. 1 ZDavP-2, whereby no criteria for serious economic damage have to be provided, but an appropriate security instrument must be presented, or that a Lien must be entered in the appropriate register.
 
During the deferral or instalment period, interest of 2% annually or at the same rate as the reference rate for the calculation of state aid published by the European Commission is calculated.
 
If the instalments of the tax are not paid in time, other instalments also become due.
 

II. Possibilities under the Intervention Act on Measures in the Public-Financial Sector ("Intervention Act" – in Slovenian: Zakon o interventnih ukrepih na javnofinančnem področju)

In accordance with the provisions of the Intervention Act, in particular Article 6 and following, the solution described above in point a) has been simplified to a certain extent:
 
a) Payment of taxes in a maximum of 24 monthly instalments or deferral for a period of 24 months in accordance with Art. 6 Para. 1 of the Intervention Act, whereby the criterion of serious economic damage on the part of the legal entity doesn’t need not be proved, rather it must be proved by the legal entity that it could not make any income because of the Covid-19 virus. According to the official interpretations of this Intervention Act, there is no definite document, which must be submitted in attachment to the application. Therefore, any document can be attached to the application, from which the understanding is possible, that the legal entity cannot make any income, because of the Covid-19 virus. As an example of such documents, is a statement of all outstanding liabilities with amounts and due date. Additional documents could be:

•  Balance Sheet;
• Income Statement;
• Statement of transactions and balances on transaction accounts;
• Etc.

  
If the taxpayer is in arrears with payment of instalments, while this Intervention Act is valid, all instalments become due 3 months after the end of validity of this Act.
 
The solutions under points a), b) and c) above are still possible.
 
In addition, the Intervention Act in Art. 7 also regulates some of the general aspects above - for example, during the validity of this Intervention Act, no interest is charged when paying in instalments or when deferring the payment - this applies to all types of deferrals and payments in instalments.
 
Additional measures (for companies):

•  Alteration of deadlines for filings of corporate tax returns as well as the annual reports;
• Other aspects regarding the advance payment of corporate tax execution and public finance measures.

III. Possibilities under the Act on the Interim Measure of partial Reimbursement of Wage Compensation (Zakon o interventnih ukrepih na področju plač in prispevkov):

• The conditions for the employer to receive reimbursement of a part of the salary compensation, paid out to an employee, which was posted to wait for work at home and does not fulfil his employment tasks;
• The obligations of the employer, Institute for Employment of Republic of Slovenia, as well as the employee;
• Other aspects.

Especially regarding the reimbursement of the salary compensation and payment of social contributions, a new Act is being discussed/concluded at the moment, which would (temporarily and partially) replace existing Acts (Zakon o interventnih ukrepih za zajezitev epidemije Covid-19 in omilitev njenih posledic za državljane in gospodarstvo (Intervention Measures Act to Curb the Covid-19 Epidemic and Mitigate Its Impact on Citizens and the Economy; “ZIUZEOP”)) which is scheduled to regulate:

• The reimbursement of paid salary compensation in the amount of 100% by the state (if the workers are not working);
• The payment of either all or a part of social contributions for an employee by the state, depending on the type of employee (working or not, etc.);
• deferral of the advance payment of corporate tax;
• Other aspects, such as the deferral of loan payments, changes to the law of infectious diseases, tasks of the police, etc.