In brief
- The tax office can cancel a payer's registration if it repeatedly fails to file returns, pay tax or be reachable.
- When the day named in the decision ends, the VAT ID ceases to be valid and the company should no longer charge VAT.
- You cannot deduct VAT from an invoice issued by a struck-off supplier.
- The Financial Administration publishes the list of struck-off payers daily, with the erasure date and the year of the breach.
The Slovak Financial Administration can cancel a VAT payer's registration without being asked. Anyone buying from that company should know before booking the next invoice with VAT on it.
When the tax office cancels a registration
Under § 81(3) of the VAT Act the tax office may cancel a registration if the payer does not carry on business, or if within a calendar year it repeatedly:
- fails to file a VAT return or control statement,
- fails to pay its own tax liability,
- cannot be reached at its registered office, place of business or establishment,
- breaches its obligations during a tax audit.
The tax office issues a decision naming the day the company stops being a payer. When that day ends its VAT ID ceases to be valid (§ 81(4)) — and from then on VIES reports it as invalid.
The Financial Administration also publishes a list of payers whose registration it cancelled for breaching their obligations, with the erasure date and the year of the breach. On 23 September 2026 it held 43,828 erasures since October 2014, 2,386 of them since 1 January 2026. Some companies appear more than once — erased, registered again and erased again.
What it means for you as a customer
- After the day named in the decision the company is not a payer and should not charge VAT.
- If its invoice carries VAT after that date, you cannot deduct it — § 49(2)(a) allows deduction only of tax charged by another payer.
- Erasure alone does not mean the company has ceased to exist. It may keep trading, just without VAT. The business register will not tell you.
An erasure for failing obligations is also a signal about the partner beyond VAT: a company that repeatedly fails to file returns or cannot be reached at its address may not be a reliable supplier either.
Liability for the supplier's VAT
Liability is a separate question. Under § 69(13) a payer is liable for VAT a supplier stated on an invoice and did not pay, if it knew or should and could have known that the tax would not be paid. The law treats as sufficient grounds in particular an unreasonably high or low price without economic justification, linked statutory bodies or shareholders, and payment to an account other than the one the supplier has published in the Financial Administration's list of bank accounts.
How to find out in time
The Financial Administration updates the erasure list daily, and we download it daily. Check a single company in the tool — if it was erased, you see the erasure date and the year of the breach.
To know the moment it happens, add your suppliers and customers to a watchlist. We report the erasure in the morning email, by webhook or in the change feed through the API — with the date the Financial Administration gives.