As we informed you in our previous article about the Slovak version of a ‘Catch-22‘, the Slovak government has adopted several financial measures to support the employees, entrepreneurs, and self-employed in an effort to mitigate the negative economic consequences following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, as these have begun to be put into practice, several changes and clarifications had to be made.

We have summarised these for you below from the point of view of an employer (effective from 17 May 2020):

1. Limit on the amount of the flat contribution per employee (Scheme 3B, i.e. flat contribution for the part of each employee’s wage cost depending on the decrease of revenues)

Until this change has come into effect, the monthly flat contribution per employee was set at up to a maximum of EUR 540 (for a decrease in revenues of 80% and more). With this change, the maximum amount of the contribution remains the same, but another important limitation applies. Under this new rule, the amount of the contribution per employee can not exceed 80% of the employee's gross salary (compared to 100% before).

2. Scheme 3B - change in the assessment of the decrease in revenues

For the purposes of the assessment of the decrease in revenues, the revenues of the whole employer (with one ID number) will be considered, that is,  all its operation in Slovakia in all scenarios. The discussion on whether to assess all operations or just one when applying for a contribution for a single operation (is thus over.

3. An employer with one operation – a combination of measures during one month is not possible

This change answers another frequent question: whether it is possible to combine the measures: it is not. An employer with a single operation can choose only one of the options (i.e. Scheme 1 or one of the Schemes 3A/3B) during one month.

4. An employer with more than one operation -  a possibility of a combination of measures

Contrary to point 3 above, employers may combine Scheme 1 or Scheme 3A/3B if they have two and more operations.

In practice this means that if one of the employers' operations was forced to shut down due to the measures of the Slovak Public Health Authority (SPHA), the employer may apply for a contribution under Scheme 1. If another operation of the same employer was closed due to the obstacles on the part of the employer or because its revenues decreased, the employer can apply for a contribution simultaneously under Scheme 3A and Scheme 3B.

6. Scheme 1 - when can you apply?

Employers (who were forced to shut down their operations based on the SPHA measures are entitled to apply for a contribution only if the operations were closed for more than half of the calendar days in one month. If this condition is not fulfilled, the employer can only apply for a contribution under Schemes 3A or 3B.

We have listed the most significant changes for the employers, however, please be aware, that the ‘May Update of Contributions Policy‘ covers also several other changes (e.g. the self-employed, changes in the records that have to be provided, etc.).

For more detailed information, please visit this site (only available in Slovak).