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Amendment to the Act on travel and tourist industry promotion was passed again by the Slovak Parliament

Slovak Parliament overrode President´s veto on the amendment to the Act on travel and tourist industry promotion that touches on recreation of employees and introduces recreational vouchers as the new financial tool for promotion of travel and tourist industry.

Soon after Slovak president vetoed the amendment and suggested the entire provisions on recreational vouchers to be left out in his letter of 8 November 2018, the Slovak Parliament approved the amendment in its original wording on 27 November 2018. 
The amendment to the Act on travel and tourist industry promotion which was repeatedly approved by the Slovak Parliament indirectly amends several acts, inter alia Labour code, where the conditions for provision of recreational contribution are set.

 

The basic attributes of the recreational contribution are as follows:

  • obligation to provide recreational contribution applies on employers having more than 49 employees (the average registered number of employees for the previous calendar year should be taken into account), while only employees with employment continuously lasting at least 24 months are entitled for recreational contribution,

  • employer having less than 50 employees is allowed (not obliged) to provide recreational contribution to employees

  • recreational contribution is provided by the employer at the request of the employee,

  • recreational contribution is provided in the amount of 55% of total eligible costs; up to 275 EUR per employee working full-time and one year (when there is a part-time job the contribution is reduced proportionally),

  • the recreational contribution can be provided in the form of recreational voucher or without the recreational voucher – i.e. reimbursement of eligible costs of the employee upon proving the contribution entitlement and upon submission of documents (the recreational voucher is new financial tool in the travel and tourists industry – „a specific mean of payment or similar technical mean storing ownership value electronically which is issued by the limited provider in line with the specific regulation”),

  • the fee for the mediation of services through recreational voucher should not exceed 3% of the nominal value of the recreational voucher.

The amendment to the Slovak Income Tax Act is part of the travel and tourist industry promotion package; and brings certain changes as follows:

  • recreational contribution is exempted from tax at hands of employees (Article5 Section 7 Letter b) of the Income Tax Act),

  • should an employee claim recreational contribution and at the same time the way of his/her recreation give rise for his/her entitlement to non-taxable item on spa care, his/her entitlement to non-taxable item should be disregarded (Article 11 Section. 14 of the Income Tax Act),

  • costs on recreational contribution which were incurred in compliance with specific legislation are considered as tax deductible expenses for the employer(Article 19 Section 2 Letter. c) Point 5 of the Income Tax Act),

The amended provisions of the Income Tax Act will apply to the recreations started after 31 December 2018 (§ 52zt of the Income Tax Act).

 

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