2nd group contribution provision - The first state aid to employees, entrepreneurs and sole traders

The Notification is published in Slovak on following websites: https://www.pomahameludom.sk/ and https://www.neprepustaj.sk/. Respective updates are outlined in italics.

Information stated below is of general nature and does not necessarily consider specific conditions of your case. For assistance in your specific case, please, do not hesitate to contact us. 

Who is eligible for the contribution provision

The aid is therefore assigned to four groups of employers and self-employed persons:

• First group: employers and self-employed persons (as employers), who had to close their operational premises on basis of Public Health Authority decisions,
• Second group: self-employed persons whose sales dropped or they were forced to suspend or restrict their self-employment activities on basis of the Public Health Authority   
• Third group: employers, who will maintained job positions during the time of declared emergency situation, event if they were forced to stop or suspend their business activities.
• Fourth group: natural person that have no income from 13th March 2020 (originating either from business activity, non-business or dependent activity)

Type of aid for the 2. GROUP

Entitled applicants 

The second state aid group consists of (i) self-employed persons who stop of limit performance their self-employment activity on basis of the Public Order of the Public Health Authority or (ii) self-employed persons whose sales dropped.

Self-employed person is a natural person, which: 

• operates a trade pursuant to the Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on Entrepreneurial Activities Conducted under a Trade Licence as amended (Trades Licensing Act), 
• performs activity pursuant to the special regulation (e.g. Act no. 78/1002 Coll. on Tax Advisors and Slovak Chamber of Tax Advisors, Act. No. 323/1992 Coll. on Notarial Activity (Notarial Order), Act No. 586/2003 Coll. on Advocacy, Act No 540/2007 on Auditors, Audit and Audit Oversight, Act no. 185/2015 Copyright Act, Act No. 103/2014 Coll. on Theatre and Musical activities, Act No. 40/2015 Coll. on Audio-visual, etc.), performs liberal profession not regulated by special regulation and at the same time it is not entrepreneurial activity pursuant to the Section 2 of Commercial Code, performs liberal profession, i.e. performs an activity to which no authorisation is necessary (e.g. actor, choreographer, dancer, musician, journalist, sculptor, etc. who are not in employment or other similar relationship while performing their activities),
• performs agricultural production, including forestry and water management, pursuant to Act No. 105/1990 Coll. on Private Entrepreneurship.

Basic conditions for the contribution provision

What does self-employed person have to fulfil? 

• Suspension of self-employment activities or drop of sales by at least 20 % (or 10% in March),
• Self-employed person had pension insurance (obligatory or voluntary) in the period until 31st March 2020 and this insurance continues also after this date, or this self-employed person is a subject of so-called levy holiday in accordance with relevant legislation.
• Trading licence of self-employed person is not terminated or suspended.
• Self-employed person is not also in employment relationship.

Amount of the contribution

The self-employed persons are entitled to a flat-rate contribution as a compensation for the loss of income from their self-employment on the basis of the sales drop.

Determination of the sales drop

The applicant may choose one of the following calculation alternatives: 

1. Sales in the current month are compared to the sales in the comparable month of the previous year (e.g., March 2020 is compared to March 2019).
2. The amount of sales in the current month is compared to the amount of sales calculated as an average for the previous year (i.e. 1/12 of sales for 2019) - only those who carried out business activities during all the previous year (2019) shall use this calculation.
3. The amount of sales for February 2020 is compared to the sales for comparable month – only those, who carried out business activity only in the part of the previous year or started to carry out business activity no later than before 1st February 2020 shall use this calculation.
4. If the applicant has more operations, sales are compared within one ID number, regardless the case the applicant applies for contribution for drop in sales in one or multiple operations.

Filing an application – procedure 

The application form is available on https://www.pomahameludom.sk and also on https://www.neprepustaj.sk. 

The self-employed person shall submit the application to the respective Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (hereinafter referred to as the “office”) determined according to the district where the self-employed person carries out its business activity. 

Mandatory Annex to the application is a report for contribution provision. More information on how to complete such report is available in the manual in Slovak language 

Manuál k vypĺňaniu výkazu pre poskytnutie príspevku

Part of the application consists from a declaration in which the self-employed person declares that: 

• was not an undertaking in difficulty as at 31 December 2019 (closer information on the undertaking in difficulty are available on following link in Slovak Undertaking in difficulty),
• its sales dropped in relation to the announcement of MS,
• had pension insurance (obligatory or voluntary) in the period until 31st March 2020 and this insurance continues also after this date, or this self-employed person is a subject of so-called levy holiday in accordance with relevant legislation.
• trading licence of self-employed person is not terminated or suspended,
• is not also in employment relationship,
• it meets the conditions stipulated in Section 70, par. 7 of the Act on Employment Services by following: 
  • fulfils tax obligation pursuant to the Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income taxes, as amended,
  • fulfils the obligations to pay advance public insurance levies, social insurance levies and obligatory old-age pension savings contributions,
  • is compliant with the prohibition of illegal employment for a period of two years prior to applying for the contribution,
  • does not have unpaid financial obligations towards the Labour Office,
  • it has not been declared bankrupt or wound up, has not been in receivership and does not have a reimbursement schedule pursuant to special regulations,
  • there are no outstanding claims of employees arising from their employment,
  • it is not prohibited to receive subsidies or to receive aid and assistance provided from EU funds, in case the employer is a legal person;
• there are no outstanding claims against this self-employed person for repayment of aid on basis of former decision of European Commission declaring aid illegal and incompatible with the internal market, 
• person is a subject who was established and started to carry out its business activities before 1 February 2020. 

The facts declared honestly by the applicant may be subject to ex-post controls.

By confirming correctness and verity of submitted data in the application and its annexes, the applicant shall be aware of consequences due to false declaration of the abovementioned facts, including criminal consequences (Section 221 Fraud, Section 255 Subsidy Fraud, Section 261 Damage to the Financial Interests of the European Union pursuant to the Penal Code No. 300/2005 Coll. as amended). 

The application shall be submitted without signature and it shall be submitted by electronic post (mail) or electronically by electronic mailbox (as a priority). In exceptional cases, the application can be sent by post office or delivered personally. 

The application for June 2020 shall be submitted until 31 July 2020. 

Agreement of provision of financial contribution - signing and delivery

The contribution shall be provided to the employer without delay on basis of Agreement on provision of financial contribution (hereinafter referred to as the “Agreement”), which is sent by the office after delivery of application and control of its formal requirements.

If the Agreement is sent to the self-employed person via post office, it is delivered in two counterparts, one for each party to the Agreement. The office sends already signed Agreement to the self-employed person. The self-employed person shall subsequently sign the Agreement and send one counterpart also by post (in exceptional cases personally) back to the office. Second counterpart is for the self-employed person.

If the self-employed person has active electronic mailbox for delivery, the office sends signed Agreement electronically through electronic mailbox. The self-employed person signs this Agreement by certified electronic signature and sends it back to the office via portal www.slovensko.sk. 

Please note, that the office will not accept documents signed by two methods at the same time. In other words - if the office signed the Agreement electronically, the self-employed person cannot print the Agreement and sent it by the post, but it has to be also signed electronically.