Harmful Tax Practices – 2019 Peer Review Reports on the Exchange of Information on Tax Rulings

Slovak Republic

The Slovak Republic has met all aspects of the terms of reference (OECD, 2017[3]) (ToR) for the calendar year 2019 (year in review) and no recommendations are made.

The Slovak Republic can legally issue two types of rulings within the scope of the transparency framework.

In practice, the Slovak Republic issued rulings within the scope of the transparency framework as follows:

• One past ruling;

• For the period 1 April 2016 - 31 December 2016: two future rulings;

• For the calendar year 2017: five future rulings;

• For the calendar year 2018: three future rulings; and

• For the year in review: three future rulings.

No peer input was received in respect of the exchanges of information on rulings received from the Slovak Republic.

A. The information gathering process

1003. The Slovak Republic can legally issue the following two types of rulings within the scope of the transparency framework: (i) cross-border unilateral APAs and any other cross-border unilateral tax rulings (such as an advance tax ruling) covering transfer pricing or the application of transfer pricing principles and (ii) permanent establishment rulings.

1004. For the Slovak Republic, past rulings are any tax rulings within scope that are issued either: (i) on or after 1 January 2014 but before 1 April 2016; or (ii) on or after 1 January 2010 but before 1 January 2014, provided they were still in effect as at 1 January 2014. Future rulings are any tax rulings within scope that are issued on or after 1 April 2016.

1005. In the prior years’ peer review reports, it was determined that the Slovak Republic’s undertakings to identify past and future rulings and all potential exchange jurisdictions were sufficient to meet the minimum standard. In addition, it was determined that the Slovak Republic’s review and supervision mechanism was sufficient to meet the minimum standard. The Slovak Republic’s implementation remains unchanged, and therefore continues to meet the minimum standard.

1006. The Slovak Republic has met all of the ToR for the information gathering process and no recommendations are made.

B. The exchange of information

1007. In the prior years’ peer review reports, it was determined that the Slovak Republic’s process for the completion and exchange of templates were sufficient to meet the minimum standard. With respect to past rulings, no further action was required. The Slovak Republic’s implementation in this regard remains unchanged and therefore continues to meet the minimum standard.

1008. The Slovak Republic has international agreements permitting spontaneous exchange of information, including being a party to the (i) Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters: Amended by the 2010 Protocol (OECD/Council of Europe, 2011[4]) (“the Convention”), (ii) the Directive 2011/16/EU with all other European Union Member States and (iii) bilateral agreements in force with 70 jurisdictions.1

1009. For the year in review, the timeliness of exchanges is as follows:

 

Future rulings in the scope of the transparency framework	Number of exchanges transmitted within three months of the information becoming available to the competent authority or immediately after legal impediments have been lifted	Delayed exchanges
		Number of exchanges transmitted later than three months of the information on rulings becoming available to the competent authority	Reasons for the delays	Any other comments
	3	0	N/A	N/A

 

Follow up requests received for exchange of the ruling	Number	Average time to provide response	Number of requests not answered
	0	N/A	N/A

1010. The Slovak Republic has the necessary legal basis for spontaneous exchange of information, a process for completing the templates in a timely way and has completed all exchanges. The Slovak Republic has met all of the ToR for the exchange of information process and no recommendations are made.

C. Statistics (ToR IV)

1011. The statistics for the year in review are as follows:

 

Category of ruling	Number of exchanges	Jurisdictions exchanged with
Cross-border unilateral advance pricing agreements (APAs) and any other cross-border unilateral tax rulings (such as an advance tax ruling) covering transfer pricing or the application of transfer pricing principles	De minimis rule applies	N/A
Permanent establishment rulings	N/A	N/A
De minimis rule	3	N/A
Total	3

D. Matters related to intellectual property regimes (ToR I.4.1.3)

1012. The Slovak Republic offers an intellectual property regime (IP regime)2 that is not subject to the transparency requirements under the Action 5 Report (OECD, 2015[1]), because:

• New entrants benefitting from the grandfathered IP regime: the regime is a new nexus-compliant regime and therefore there is no grandfathered IP regime for which enhanced transparency requirements will apply.

• Third category of IP assets: not applicable as the regimes do not allow the third category of IP assets to qualify for the benefits.

• Taxpayers making use of the option to treat the nexus ratio as a rebuttable presumption: not applicable as the regimes do not allow the nexus ratio to be treated as a rebuttable presumption.

Summary of recommendations on implementation of the transparency framework

 

Aspect of implementation of the transparency framework that should be improved	Recommendation for improvement
	No recommendations are made.

References

[3] OECD (2017), BEPS Action 5 on Harmful Tax Practices - Terms of Reference and Methodology for the Conduct of the Peer Reviews of the Action 5 Transparency Framework, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/beps-action-5-harmful-tax-practices-peer-review-transparency-framework.pdf.

[1] OECD (2015), Countering Harmful Tax Practices More Effectively, Taking into Account Transparency and Substance, Action 5 - 2015 Final Report, OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264241190-en.

[4] OECD/Council of Europe (2011), The Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters: Amended by the 2010 Protocol, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264115606-en.