When a Slovak company files its financial statements — and why a missing one may mean nothing yet

The Register of Financial Statements is one of the best public sources on how a Slovak company is doing. But anyone looking for a partner's statements there should know when they are due — otherwise it is easy to see a problem where everything is in order.

The deadline follows the tax return

The Income Tax Act requires a taxpayer to prepare financial statements as of the end of the tax period and file them by the tax return deadline (§ 49(11)). The return is due within three calendar months after the tax period ends (§ 49(2)) — for a calendar year, by 31 March.

A company can extend that deadline by notifying the tax office before it expires (§ 49(3)):

• by up to three whole calendar months — for a calendar year, to 30 June,
• by up to six whole calendar months if it has foreign income — for a calendar year, to 30 September.

The extension notice is not public. The register cannot tell you which deadline applies to a given company — and a company with no statements in April may be entirely in order until the end of September.

How statements reach the register

Statements are filed electronically through the Financial Administration's portal. The Financial Directorate checks their basic particulars and passes them to the register operator (§ 23b(1) of the Accounting Act). So statements may not appear in the register on the day they are filed.

• If the statements are not approved in time, they are filed unapproved and the notice of the approval date follows within 15 working days of approval (§ 23a(4)).
• Approved statements, or the notice of their approval, must be in the register within one year of the end of the accounting period (§ 23a(7)).
• If the statements are subject to audit and the audit is not finished in time, they are filed unaudited and the auditor's report follows within one year of the end of the accounting period (§ 23a(5)).

Not all statements are public

The register has a public and a non-public part. Documents of natural persons who are accounting entities — sole traders, for example — are in the non-public part (§ 23(6)). If you cannot see a sole trader's statements, it does not mean they were not filed.

How to read it when checking a partner

• Missing statements from a company that used to file are a signal only after 30 September — before that it may be an extended deadline.
• Unapproved statements are not a problem in themselves; the law allows for them.
• For a company that has never filed, the register cannot tell you whether it had to.

That is why we send our missing-statement alert only after the latest possible deadline — nine months after the end of the accounting period — and only for companies that used to file. It says only that the statements have not arrived, not that the company broke the law.

• Guide: How to check a Slovak business partner