How to find the top of the state robbers? Look for white horses from Hungary or Czech

28. Mar 2025 at 17:03

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The author is FINSTRAT analyst

The number of foreign persons in the bodies of Slovak companies has been increasing for a long time. In March 2025 there were more than 82,000 foreign persons in various positions-mostly from neighboring countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria or Ukraine). While 4,241 positions of statutory representatives were built in 2019, it was almost 6,300 positions in 2024.

In many companies, foreign persons operate as white horses. The fact is that companies in which there is a foreign person in some function is owed to the state and the Union insurance company up to EUR 1.7 billion out of the total debt of approximately EUR 3.7 billion. More than 94 % are taxes on taxes against the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic.

There are more than 82,000 foreign persons in various positions in various positions, many of which work in several companies or in several positions in one company. Persons from abroad are in 65,041 companies in Slovakia.

Nationality is a majority of foreign persons from neighboring states, especially from the Czech Republic (19,861 persons), Hungary (13,964 persons) and Austria (6,729 persons). Of the total, more than 59 % of people are from the neighboring five countries.

The positions held by foreign persons in Slovak companies are mostly the functions of partners (68 967) and statutory representatives (55 023). These functions may be overlaps, as the company’s statutory representative can also be in the position of a partner and will also be the end user of the benefits. The formula is specific to single -person companies. Foreign persons also operate within the Supervisory Board or as shareholders, or as procurists or liquidators.

In features such as the end user of the benefits, statutory events or member of the Supervisory Board, it is also possible to monitor the date of creation of the function and thus the trends. Below on the chart is the development since 2019. In 2019 and 2020, an increase in the number of end -users according to RPO is visible. The reason is a change in the legislation – by the end of 2019, persons who met the conditions were obliged to enroll in the end of the end users’ register of benefits if they were not previously registered.

Today, it is an obligation to state the end user of the benefits by a directly determined condition for the proposal for the entry of a new entity into the Commercial Register.

In the case of the numbers of functions for statutory representatives, it is necessary to take into account that the functions that have disappeared in the meantime are not included in previous years. This is the current number of statutory benefits and end users. If we were also counting on the extinct functions, there would be more than 9,400 functions of statutory positions in 2014, while in 2024 over 7,000.

Of the 65,041 companies in which we register foreign persons in various positions, the majority of the wholesale (8,100), within the services (7 524) or in law, consulting and accounting (7 315) operate.

The largest debtors are companies with white horses from abroad

Among the sectors, the largest debtors of the company in wholesale (EUR 434 million), retail (EUR 210 million) and construction (EUR 180 million) are the largest. In the case of wholesale, the debt against the financial administration of the Slovak Republic is more than 98 %. In the case of retail and services, this is more than 94 %.