The obligations of an s.r.o. fall into four groups: accounting, tax, contribution and registration duties. Most have a fixed deadline, and most penalties arise from missing that deadline rather than from a wrong calculation. 2026 brought several changes to the routine: a new minimum tax band, a different VAT deduction regime for company cars, and preparation for mandatory electronic invoicing. The overview below sets out what a limited liability company must do, and where it pays to bring in a specialist for bookkeeping.

What are the basic obligations of an s.r.o.?

The basic obligations of an s.r.o. arise from four pieces of legislation: the Commercial Code, Act No. 431/2002 Coll. on Accounting, Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income Tax, and Act No. 563/2009 Coll. on Tax Administration. The company has them whether it trades actively or has no turnover at all.

One duty runs through all of them: a company registered in the Commercial Register must communicate with the tax authority electronically (Section 14 of the Tax Procedure Code). A paper filing counts as not delivered. Setting up access rights and mandate agreements is usually best handled together with tax advisory right after the company is formed — as is agreeing who will handle tax return preparation at year end.

What accounting obligations does a limited liability company have?

Every s.r.o. must keep double-entry bookkeeping — single-entry bookkeeping is not an option for it. That leads to a chain of three steps at year end:

1. Prepare the financial statements as at the date the accounting books are closed, usually 31 December.
2. File them in the Register of Financial Statements. Under Section 49(11) of the Income Tax Act, within the deadline for filing the tax return; the Accounting Act sets an outer limit in Section 23a of six months from the date to which the statements are prepared. The statements are not an annex to the return but a separate filing.
3. Have them approved by the general meeting. If they are not yet approved when the filing is due, the unapproved version is filed and a notification of the approval date is added within 15 working days of approval.

The statements also include the notes, and where the statutory criteria are met, an annual report and an audit. Accounting records must be retained for the period the law prescribes.

What tax obligations and deadlines apply in 2026?

The tax obligations of an s.r.o. are tied to the calendar. These affect practically every company.

The notification of an extended deadline must be filed before the original deadline expires, that is by 31 March. It is a notification, not an application — the tax authority does not approve it. Starting to assemble the supporting records early is therefore worth it, before the deadline starts to bite.

A company pays the minimum tax even in a loss year. In 2026 it has five bands based on taxable income: €340, €960, €1,920, €3,840, and a new top band of €11,520 for income above €5,000,000.

When does an s.r.o. have to register for VAT?

The registration duty under Section 4 of Act No. 222/2004 Coll. on VAT has two thresholds, each with a different consequence:

• Turnover above €50,000 in a calendar year — the company applies for registration within five working days and becomes a VAT payer from 1 January of the following year.
• Turnover above €62,500 — it becomes a payer with the supply that crossed the threshold and applies for registration within five working days.

The second threshold is the one that catches companies out, because VAT applies to the very transaction that crossed the limit. A VAT payer also files VAT returns and a control statement, and for supplies within the EU a recapitulative statement. The standard VAT rate is 23%, with reduced rates of 19% and 5%.

It is better to watch the threshold in advance. For one client in August 2026 we knew exactly which invoice would be the last without VAT and which would already carry it — we issued one that day and the other the next. No corrections, no stress.

What obligations does an s.r.o. have as an employer?

If the company employs even one person — including a managing director on an employment or mandate contract — obligations arise towards the Social Insurance Agency and the health insurer. The employer must register in the employer register, register the employee before the insurance starts, file monthly statements and remit contributions.

From 1 April 2026 a change increases employer costs: the employer pays income compensation during temporary incapacity for the first 14 days instead of the previous 10. The Social Insurance Agency takes over only afterwards.

Which obligations do new companies realise last?

In our practice the order is always the same: VAT first, then payroll, and everything else last. Three obligations come genuinely late:

• Employer registration with the Social Insurance Agency and the health insurer. It must be done before the employee starts, not on the first day.
• Notification duties for withholding tax. For example, the notification of an agreement not to withhold tax under Section 43(14) of the Income Tax Act. The penalty for filing late was €100 in our cases — a small sum, but entirely avoidable.
• Transfer pricing documentation. The duty to keep it is set out in Section 18 of the Income Tax Act and its scope is defined by guidance from the Slovak Ministry of Finance. This year one company became obliged to keep full transfer pricing documentation solely because one of its shareholders is resident in a non-cooperative jurisdiction. Not because of transaction volume, not because of company size, but because of where a shareholder lives. The quote for the documentation was €5,200 excluding VAT, and that was without benchmarks. You will not find this in any checklist for new companies.

On top of that comes data protection documentation under the GDPR and Act No. 18/2018 Coll., and for companies that are obliged entities under Act No. 297/2008 Coll., AML documentation too. Companies often realise both only during an inspection.

What is new in 2026 and what to prepare for in 2027?

Three changes reshape routine company administration and are worth knowing in advance.

The transaction tax narrowed to legal entities. An amendment to Act No. 279/2024 Coll. (Act No. 272/2025 Coll.) removed self-employed individuals from the group of taxpayers as of 1 January 2026. For an s.r.o. the tax remains: 0.4% of the amount debited, capped at €40 per transaction, 0.8% on cash withdrawals, and €2 a year for a payment card in use.

Company cars have a new VAT regime. The transitional provision in Section 85n of the VAT Act, inserted by Act No. 261/2025 Coll., introduced a flat 50% VAT deduction for M1 passenger cars and L1e and L3e motorcycles acquired between 1 January 2026 and 30 June 2028, and for goods and services related to them. A full deduction is available only for exclusive business use: the company must notify the tax authority within the VAT return deadline (Section 85n(9)) and keep an electronic trip log that it makes available to the tax office on request (Section 85n(6)).

Electronic invoicing becomes mandatory on 1 January 2027. An amendment to the VAT Act introduces a mandatory uniform electronic invoice format for VAT payers in domestic B2B and B2G transactions, together with data reporting — the supplier within 15 days of issue, the customer within 5 days of receipt. A voluntary phase runs from the second quarter of 2026 and is the only window in which the system can be tested without risking penalties. Those can reach €10,000, and up to €100,000 for repeated breaches.

How to prepare for mandatory e-invoicing while still in 2026?

On e-invoicing we are not speaking from a seminar but from our own operation. We keep our accounts fully digitally, with no physical archiving of documents, on the Doklado platform. We have our incoming invoices delivered straight into it, and we are ready for mandatory e-invoicing from 1 January 2027.

The market often sees digitalisation as an administrative burden. It is the opposite: without ongoing data there is nothing to optimise, because you can only optimise what you know in October, not what you find out in March. That is why we see e-invoicing not as a problem but as the moment ongoing data becomes the standard for everyone.

When we deliberately called and e-mailed our clients in summer 2026, the same problems kept coming up:

• Putting it off. A typical answer from August 2026 was that the topic was “still at the stage of snoozing the reminder”. They know about it, they have even been on a training course, but nobody has it on their desk.
• Not distinguishing between receiving and issuing. Receiving invoices is solved by choosing a certified delivery service provider, the so-called “postman”. Issuing is the technically demanding part: the invoicing system has to be connected to the postman, usually via an API. For a client with annual turnover of around €70 million we have been working on this since August 2026, and there have already been delays in getting access to the test environment. A company that starts in November 2026 will not make it.
• Not knowing which mode they will be in. For one non-profit organisation we established from the documents that it will only receive invoices, not send them. Electronic invoicing will also affect NGOs, which most of them do not expect.

We recommend completing five steps before the end of 2026, in this order:

1. Choose a postman, now. In July 2026 the Financial Administration listed almost 60 certified delivery service providers and their intermediaries. You can still choose today; in December it will be a question of available capacity.
2. Check whether your invoicing software is certified itself. Some vendors hold postman certification, which saves you the whole integration.
3. Separate receiving from issuing. Receiving is solved by choosing a postman; issuing is a technical project. Plan in months, not weeks.
4. Confirm which mode you will be in. Not every entity will have to send invoices as well.
5. Test it in the voluntary phase while still in 2026. That way issuing errors surface now, not once everything goes straight to the Financial Administration.

What penalties apply if obligations are not met?

Penalties differ depending on which obligation was missed. For a tax return not filed on time the tax authority imposes a fine under the Tax Procedure Code, and late payment attracts default interest. Failing to file the financial statements in the register is an administrative offence under the Accounting Act. Where obligations are repeatedly unmet, a court may order the company to be wound up.

The worst situation we have dealt with was not the one with the highest fine. It was the one where a small arrear was left lying.

The second category is fixed penalties for formalities, such as €100 for a late notification of an agreement not to withhold tax. The third, which surprises clients most, is an audit that does not come from the tax office: one client is currently undergoing an excise duty audit by the customs office.

The practical consequence is often worse than the fine itself: a company with no filed financial statements struggles to obtain credit, to win a public contract, or to sign a larger customer who checks its counterparties. That is why the biggest real saving is usually the penalty that never arose.

Summary

The obligations of an s.r.o. form a cycle that repeats every year: keep double-entry books, prepare and file the financial statements, submit the tax return by 31 March, pay the tax or at least the minimum tax, monitor turnover for VAT, and meet employer contribution duties. 2026 added a new minimum tax band, a different VAT regime for cars, and the start of the voluntary electronic invoicing phase. A company that puts the dates in the calendar in January and checks its personal taxpayer account regularly is only signing documents in March.

FAQ: frequently asked questions

Does an s.r.o. have to file a tax return even with no income?

Yes. A company registered in the Commercial Register files a corporate income tax return even if it carried on no activity. It must also prepare financial statements and file them in the Register of Financial Statements. Zero income does not mean zero obligations.

By when must an s.r.o. file its financial statements in the register?

Within the deadline for filing the tax return under Section 49(11) of the Income Tax Act, so normally by 31 March of the following year. If the company extends the return deadline by notification, the deadline for filing the statements is extended too. The Accounting Act sets an outer limit in Section 23a of six months from the date to which the statements are prepared.

When must an s.r.o. register as a VAT payer?

If turnover in a calendar year exceeds €50,000, the company becomes a VAT payer from 1 January of the following year. If turnover exceeds €62,500, it becomes a payer with the supply that crossed the threshold. In both cases the registration application is filed within five working days. Both thresholds are set out in Section 4 of Act No. 222/2004 Coll.

When must a company be ready for mandatory e-invoicing?

VAT payers must use electronic invoices for domestic B2B and B2G transactions from 1 January 2027. Because connecting an invoicing system to a certified delivery service provider takes months, we recommend choosing a provider and testing issuing during the voluntary phase in 2026.

Reviewed by

Mgr. Pavol Lukáčik

This article was reviewed before publication by a licensed tax advisor and the owner of Lukáčik & Partners, which has provided tax, accounting and payroll advisory to SMEs, sole traders and individuals since 2011.

• Tax advisor, SKDP licence no. 981/2011, 19 years of practice
• Faculty of Law, Trnava University
• Know-how from an international advisory network
• Member of the Slovak Chamber of Tax Advisors

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