Airbnb hosts and renters using similar platforms, drivers driving for Bolt or Uber but also other digital platforms providers will no longer hide from the Tax Office since January 2023. The amendment to Act No. 442/2012 will come into force and digital platforms will have to provide information about their customers to the Tax Office without an appeal.
Hard times associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and constrained personal contact indicated that the digitalizing trend is inevitable for certain segments from business sustainability point of view . Digital platforms are providers of online space where supply and demand meet. DAC 7 is aimed specifically at digital platforms operators.
In March 2021, the Council of the European Union adopted the rules for the revision of the Directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation No. 2011/16/EU (through the “DAC 7”). The aim of this measure is to increase tax transparency of the digital space and to ensure the proper payments of income taxes coming from the sale of goods or services via digital platforms. The Slovak Republic implemented DAC 7 by approving the amendment to the Act No. 442/2012 on international assistance and cooperation in tax administration (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) dated 15/06/2022.
What is meant by the term „digital platform“?
Any software or electronic interface enabling the connection between sellers and buyers (e. g., for the purpose of selling goods, rental of properties and means of transport, or provision of services). Any platform technology via which the seller provides relevant activities to users or customers is required. The term “platform” also covers the activities connected with the arrangement for the collection and payment of a consideration in respect of relevant activity. It does not matter where the digital platform is located but it depends whether the revenue is realized by the sellers based in any of the member states (the DAC 7 rules apply to the territory of the European Union and also outside of it). The aforementioned reporting obligation does not apply to digital platforms which only process payments, place advertisements or redirect customers to another platform.
Who must comply with reporting obligations?
The Act recognizes two types of reporting subjects – platform´s operators based and not based in the Slovak Republic.
Based platform´s operator is one who fulfils at least one of four conditions: 1) being liable to tax in the Slovak Republic by reason of the residency or place of effective management, 2) being founded or established in accordance with the legislation of the Slovak Republic, 3) place of management is in the Slovak Republic, 4) it has a permanent establishment in the Slovak Republic and is not a Qualified operator of a qualified non-member state´s platform.
Platform´s operator not based in the Slovak Republic or in another member state is one who arranges the execution of the relevant activity of the users who are the subject to notification or relevant activity including real estate rental in the Slovak Republic and at the same time is not a Qualified Non-Union Platform Operator.
What obligations do they have?
The Act stipulates a list of mandatory reporting information by the reporting party. It is not only about the basic identification data of the reporting party but also, e. g., about data of each seller who is the subject to notification who carried out the relevant activity in the relevant reporting period, i.e. rental of means of transport, sold the goods or provision of a similar service via the platform. The data includes e. g. financial account´s identifier, amount of paid income or amounts deducted by the reporting platform´s operator.
The reporting period is a calendar year. The first reporting period will be the year 2023 for which reporting platform´s operators carry out the due diligence and report the information to the Tax Office of the Slovak Republic by 31 January 2024. The electronic report form will be published on the website of the Financial Directorate of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “Financial Directorate of SR”).
The Act stipulates exceptions to the reporting obligation for those reporting platform operators who submit a declaration in electronic form that the required information has already been reported by another reporting platform´s operator. The notification form will be published on the website of the Tax Office of the Slovak Republic and its part can be a submission of documentation or agreement regarding the fulfilment of reporting obligations by other reporting platform´s operators.
The reporting platform´s operator is obliged within 15 days from the date when it became the reporting operator of the platform, to notify electronically the competent authority of the Slovak Republic and name a chosen member state which will fulfil the required reporting information. If there are changes to the information stated in the notification, the reporting platform´s operator is obliged to report these changes to the competent authority of the Slovak Republic electronically within 15 days from the day they occurred. The electronic notification form will be published on the website of the Tax Office of the Slovak Republic.
Not based reporting platform´s operator is required to register. It is enough if it is registered in one member state. The application for registration should be submitted to the Tax Office in Bratislava electronically immediately after the platform operator’s activities have begun.
The Act in § 22k determines due diligence procedures for the reporting platform´s operators for obtaining and collecting information about the sellers who are obliged to report, including the scope of information collected about sellers. The reporting party has the right to collect and verify information about the sellers since sellers become active on the platform and begin to provide relevant activities. On the other hand, it is oblige to verify the reliability of the collected information.
Fines
The Tax Office imposes a fine of up to EUR 3.000,00 to the reporting platform´s operator for the non-fulfilment of the notifying obligation, up to EUR 5.000,00 for the non-fulfilment of the registration obligation and a fine of up to EUR 10.000,00 for the non-fulfilment of the reporting obligation to the competent authority of the Slovak Republic and not to comply with due diligence procedures. If obligations are not fulfilled just after the Tax Office’s request, fines may be imposed repeatedly.
For digital platform´s operators, it will be important to assess correctly the scope of their responsibilities and prepare for their fulfilment in order to avoid possible fines. We can take into consideration the preliminary application of processes which can be expanded by the platform´s operator in 2023 only based on the requirements according to DAC 7 valid from January 1, 2023.
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not contain all obligations arising from the amendment of the Act and the implementation of DAC 7. In case of any questions regarding to reporting obligations, you can contact us anytime.
