When you must register for VAT

Slovak VAT registration is not just about turnover. A non-VAT-registered business also becomes a registered person when it buys goods from another EU country or pays an EU business for advertising, hosting or software. In the latter case there is no threshold; the first invoice is enough. Vystav tracks all three cases on the Obligations screen.

Turnover of €50,000 and €62,500

You exceed €50,000 in a calendar year

You become a VAT payer on 1 January of the following year. Apply within five working days of exceeding the threshold, not in January.

You exceed €62,500 in a calendar year

You become a VAT payer immediately, with the supply that takes you over the threshold. That invoice already needs VAT. Again, apply within five working days.

Since 2025, turnover is counted for the calendar year, not the last twelve months. It starts from zero on 1 January. Vystav calculates it from issued documents and shows exactly how many euros remain before the threshold in Obligations.

Goods from another EU country worth €14,000

If you are not VAT registered and buy goods from EU businesses whose value reaches €14,000 excluding tax in a calendar year, you must register under § 7 of the Slovak VAT Act. You must apply before the purchase that reaches the threshold, not afterwards.

• Registration under § 7 does not make you a VAT payer: you continue issuing invoices without tax.
• You pay VAT on the goods acquired but cannot deduct it.
• New means of transport and goods subject to excise duty do not count towards the threshold.

Cross-border services: no threshold

This is a common trap for sole traders. If you are not VAT registered and receive a service from a business in another EU country (advertising, hosting, software or a tool subscription), you must register under § 7a before receiving the service. There is no threshold: the first invoice counts, even if it is for forty euros.

The same applies in the other direction: if you supply a service to a business in another EU country and that business pays the tax, you apply before making the supply.

• After registration, file a VAT return within 25 days after the end of the month in which the tax liability arose.
• For a supplied service, file the Slovak recapitulative statement (súhrnný výkaz) within 25 days after the end of the quarter in which you supplied it.
• You do not file a nil return or a nil statement.
• The obligation does not arise if the service is exempt from tax or the supplier is outside the EU.

How Vystav helps

For each threshold, Obligations shows the date the obligation arose, the application deadline, a link to the Slovak Financial Administration form and the document behind the figure. Record when you submit the application there, and Vystav will stop reminding you.

For documents received from foreign suppliers, Vystav asks whether they concern goods or a service. This cannot be determined from the invoice, and the difference matters: goods have a €14,000 threshold, while a service triggers the obligation immediately.