The motto of the current Financial Administration as a pro-client institution is “Less administration, more performance”. The aim is to ease lives of clients being credible taxpayers, enhance mutual trust and confidence in the Financial Administration - client relationship and promote the voluntary fulfilment of tax obligations. That aim will be:
- Developing paperless financial administration
- Digitalising tax administration
- Switching from restrictive to client-oriented measures
- Implementing a new client care system
- Extending the array of services
- Strengthening control and analytical activities
- Fostering the Call Centre
The Financial Administration keeps extending its client-oriented measures: as a part of the means of communication with the Financial Administration, clients have access to motor vehicle tax return forms with prefilled-in fields, or the “soft warning” system distributing informative notifications to the Financial Administration’s clients, or the tax credibility index [only Slovak language] as a tool for the segmentation of taxpayers based on their credibility. Further action is on-going, including:
- Massive expansion of mandatory electronic communication
- Extension of two-way communication
- Extension of the Call Centre’s client support services
- Further digitalisation and process automation
Digital projects
Electronic communication
The Financial Administration aims to provide fully electronised and digitalised services. The electronic communication coverage is continuously being extended. Based on the Act No 563/2009 [new Window; only Slovak language] on tax administration (Code of Tax Administration) and on amendments to certain laws, as amended, with effect from 1 January 2014, the following entities are subject to the obligation to make all their filings addressed to the Financial Administration by electronic means in accordance with Section 13 (5) of the Act No 563/2009 [new Window; only Slovak language]:
- Taxpayers liable to value added tax;
- Tax advisors acting on behalf of the taxpayers represented by them in connection with the administration of taxes;
- Attorneys acting on behalf of the taxpayers represented by them in connection with the administration of taxes;
- Agents not referred to in items 2 and 3 above acting on behalf of the taxpayers liable to VAT represented by them in connection with the administration of taxes;
Starting from 1 January 2018, the mandatory electronic communication has been extended to all legal entities entered in the Register of Companies [new Window] and their agents (except those referred to in items 2 and 3 above). Starting from 1 July 2018, the mandatory electronic communication has been further extended to all business natural persons and their agents (except those referred to in items 2 and 3 above).
Electronic communication remains voluntary for taxpayers not founded or established for business operations within the meaning of Section 12 (3) of the Income Tax Act (such as civic associations, churches and religious societies recognised by the State, associations of owners of flats and non-residential premises, municipalities, higher territorial divisions, organisations partially or fully funded from the state budget, foundations, etc.) and, as such, not entered in the Register of Companies [new Window], even after 1 January 2018.
A taxable entity has three possible ways to choose from when submitting documents to the Financial Administration by electronic means:
- Activate the eID card (i.e. identification card with a chip); or
- Activate the qualified electronic signature (“KEP”); or
- Enter into the Electronic Delivery Agreement (with effect from 1 January 2018, the Agreement can be entered into by natural persons only, but all Agreements made by 31 December 2017 remain effective).
eKasa
The Financial Administration launched the eKasa project in 2019 to implement the on-line connection of all cash registers to the Financial Administration Portal. Electronic cash registers [only Slovak language] have thus been transformed into on-line cash registers. Starting from 1 April 2019, all newly established operations and new cash registers are required to connect to the system; and all other entities are required to implement such connection gradually between 1 April 2019 and 30 June 2019. Starting from 1 July 2019, the use of the eKasa system is mandatory to all business entities. The project is a part of tax fraud countering measures. They have helped to reduce the tax gap from 41% to 26% and brought revenues to the state treasury amounting to EUR 3.7 billion.
Call Centre and social networks
2014 was the year of a major break-through in the Financial Administration’s communication patterns. In addition to implementing the electronic communication system for taxpayers, the Financial Administration started to build up a full-fledged centralised Call Centre. The new Financial Administration Portal and deployment of digital applications allowed the integration of e-mail and telephone communication and the launch of the on-line chat functionality. In 2016, we became the first government institution to participate in service quality evaluation through the independent digital application Staffino [new Window]. The Financial Administration is active on multiple social networks. Our Facebook [new Window] page has been run since 2012.
TAXANA
Taxana, the Financial Administration’s automated chatbot was put in operation in September 2018. Its purpose is to enable the automatic communication between the public and the institution, which has helped the Financial Administration to handle more enquiries and reduce the workload on the Call Centre staff. Taxana is used for various promotions and the creation of posters, social network communications, leaflets and banners. It guides clients through information materials, presents video manuals and reminds of important tax obligation deadlines.
