Act No. 251/2024 Coll. on the tax from sweetened non-alcoholic beverages
The tax on sweetened non-alcoholic beverages will mainly affect supermarkets, hypermarkets, restaurants, hotels and stores with various kinds of goods, but also employers who provide sweetened non-alcoholic beverages as a workplace benefit.
The tax on sweetened non-alcoholic beverages is payable by entrepreneurs who introduce the beverage on the Slovak market as the first supplier.
This relates to Slovak producers of sweetened non-alcoholic beverages or resellers of sweetened non-alcoholic beverages who purchased the beverages from abroad with a view to selling or using them in Slovakia.
The reporting obligation arises for the manufacturer within 5 working days of the sale of the sweetened non-alcoholic beverages on the market.
When purchasing sweetened non-alcoholic beverages from abroad, the taxable person is obliged to register within 5 working days from the date of acquisition of the sweetened non-alcoholic beverages.
The tax administrator is the locally competent tax office.
The tax period is the calendar month and the tax return is filed for the month in which the tax liability arose, by the 25th day of the following calendar month. The tax is also due on that date. However, if the first delivery of the sweetened non-alcoholic beverages to Slovakia takes place from 1 January 2025, the tax liability also arises by 31 March 2025 at the latest.
If a company exports sweetened non-alcoholic beverages abroad between January and March 2025, destroys them or uses them as a sample for official control purposes, it can reduce its tax liability by that amount.
A taxable person whose financial statements must be audited and for the second half of 2024 (July to December) purchased 1.25 times more sweetened non-alcoholic beverages in compared to the same period in 2023, is required to take an inventory stock take of those sweetened non-alcoholic beverages as at 31 December 2024 till 31 January 2025 and pay the tax in January 2025.
In practice, there are still many unanswered questions, which will be methodologically guided by the Financial Administration. We will continue to monitor the issues and keep you informed.
