Tax Reliability Index - how new rules can affect a company’s reputation
Over the last few days, taxpayers have been receiving notifications in their inboxes of their status according to the Tax Reliability Index. The full list of taxpayers’ assessments as at 31 December 2021 should be published on the website of the Financial Directorate no later than 30 September 2022.
The Financial Administration has stated that currently it intends to apply only one restriction to taxpayers assessed by the index as unreliable, in the form of a shortened period of eight days in which to comply with specified obligations connected to tax audits, assessment procedures or local inquiries. However, this period may subsequently be extended, based on a reasonable request by the taxpayer.
In addition to this statutory limitation, the following restrictions will indirectly affect unreliable taxpayers:
- Inability to take advantage of benefits and advantages to which a reliable or highly reliable taxpayer has access
- Reputational risk resulting from the tax entity’s inclusion on the public list of unreliable taxpayers published by the tax authority on its website
Changes in the assessment of the Tax Reliability Index and its publication may have a significant impact on the motivation of taxpayers to achieve “reliable” status. However, it may also bring consequences in the form of loss of reputation, either in domestic or foreign markets, due to being labelled an “unreliable” taxpayer.
Classification of taxpayers and assessment criteria
Taxpayers’ breaches of obligations towards the tax administration are scored according to their severity and duration. In some cases, the Tax Reliability Index also takes into account the taxpayer’s effective tax rate as an economic indicator. A taxpayer may be assigned a reliability level based on the number of points achieved:
- Highly reliable: 10 points or less while meeting the economic indicator, i.e., the effective tax rate achieved is greater than the threshold value of the effective tax rate
- Reliable: no more than 10 points while not meeting the economic indicator, or between 10 and 25 points (irrespective of meeting the economic indicator)
- Unreliable: 25 points and above
- Not assessed: does not qualify for inclusion among assessed entities
The criteria for determining the Tax Reliability Index are laid down in a Decree of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, which is a generally binding legal regulation. The Financial Administration has also published on its website a document providing an analytical breakdown to explain the automated calculation of the index.
A controversial element of the calculation of the Tax Reliability Index score involves assessing certain criteria retrospectively, in which, among other things, the following are taken into account:
- Decisions issued in assessment or abbreviated assessment proceedings that became final during the observed period, even though there may still be court proceedings pending
- Final decisions imposing fines for selected administrative offences
- Assessments of timely tax return filing and payment of tax obligations
If a taxpayer has doubts about their assessment, they may file an objection within 15 days of receipt of the notification and the objection must be duly substantiated, while the effects of the assessment are suspended. This means that any restrictions imposed by the tax authorities will only become effective after expiry of the objection period, or after a decision on the objection has been issued.
At the same time, the assessment criteria cover breaches of compliance with the provisions of the Act on Accounting Administrative Offences under the Electronic Cash Register Act and the Act on Restriction of Cash Payments.
Benefits
A complete list of benefits and restrictions applied to reliable, highly reliable and unreliable taxpayers is published on the website of the Financial Administration. The benefits are divided into two groups:
Benefits provided to highly reliable and reliable taxpayers include:
- Requests granted for prepayments of corporate income tax, personal income tax and motor vehicle tax, or otherwise in justified cases according to the taxpayer's request, while respecting the relevant statutory provisions
- Requests granted for permission to dispose of the subject matter of a pledge, subject to compliance with the conditions laid down by the tax administrator
- Confirmation of the balance on a personal tax account issued within 15 days
- Alternative actions to secure payment of tax arrears prioritized ahead of initiating tax execution proceedings
- Place of tax inspection agreed with the taxpayer
- Refund of excise duty claims below €1,000 within the statutory time limit without carrying out a tax inspection
Benefits provided only to highly reliable taxpayers:
- Preparation of a partial protocol on tax audit to establish the eligibility of a claim for refund of excess VAT deduction or part thereof, if the legal conditions are met
- Minimum 15-day notice period for tax audit or local enquiry
- Half the standard fee charged for issuing a binding opinion
- Half the standard fees charged for issuing decisions on approval of a specific method of determining the tax base of a permanent establishment or an advance pricing agreement (APA)
- Applications granted for permission to pay tax or tax arrears in instalments, if the legal conditions are met
- Applications granted for permission to defer tax payment or tax arrears where the legal conditions are met
New benefits for taxpayers include 50% reduction in fees for binding opinions and requests for approval of specific valuation methods or APA. In practice, this means that a highly reliable company will pay only €5,000 instead of €10,000 for a unilateral valuation method approval request and only €15,000 instead of €30,000 for a bilateral approval request. The price for issuing a binding opinion will be reduced from €1,000 to €500.
If you have any questions or would like more information on this topic, please contact the author of the article (Marta Onuscakova, Peter Feiler) or your contact person at EY Slovakia.