Impact of transaction tax: Churches also pay for charity purposes, hoping to be taxed

Transaction tax Church organizations also apply, although they were not based on profit purposes. They spend the most in paying wages. The transfer of transaction tax reduces their ability to contribute where it is most needed.

They hope that they will be able to exempt from this tax on further changes in the law.

After the first month, since entrepreneurs in Slovakia started to pay a transaction tax, SME’s daily from various industries and services with questions about the impact of transaction tax addressed the company.

A tax of 0.4 percent is withdrawn by the bank from the account from the account when transferring money to another account. The ceiling for one transfer is 40 euros. So many companies will pay about 10,000 euros for payment. The tax with an ATM is set at 0.8 percent and does not have an upper limit.

According to the Estimates of the Minister of Finance Ladislav Kamenický should bring EUR 700 million to the state treasury.

« At this point, the transactional tax is irremovable, bringing such a volume of money without which we cannot imagine consolidation, » Prime Minister said at the end of April Robert Fico.

The questions are answered by representatives of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia and the Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession in Slovakia.

Katarína Jančišinová, spokeswoman of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia

1. The Conference of Bishops of Slovakia (KBS) is not a payer of transaction tax, but generally churches and religious companies are not exempted from the payment of transactional tax, despite the fact that they are not established for business. We perceive the payment of transaction tax for diocesa and parishes as a heavy burden. We believe that after careful discretion, church entities will eventually be exempted from transactional tax.

2. In many cases, it is money intended for public benefit or charity purposes (such as collections), and the transfer of transaction tax is reduced to contribute where it is most needed. Episcopal authorities must pay tax on each account movement, even in money intended for church schools, which we consider to be discriminatory.

3. We have communicated our requirements and reservations, we believe that after a careful discretion, church entities will eventually be exempted.

Renáta Vinczeová, sister General Supervisor, Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession in Slovakia

1. For the headquarters of the Evangelical Church and in Slovakia, a transactional tax is a cost of about EUR 25 to 30,000 per year, for other ECAV church organizations we estimate the cost of about 50-55 thousand.

2. The biggest problem appears when paying wages and other personal costs for employees, this represents the largest cost item. Another problem is to redistribute assistance to other (natural persons or organizations) from donors from donors or collections – we are incurred additional costs that we cannot claim as a justified expense as a justified expense, and we cannot even reduce the redistribution of aid.

3. ECAV, in cooperation with other churches, has been trying to classify from the beginning of the legislative process among entities that are exempt from paying the transaction tax and church organizations. For according to the explanatory memorandum to the bill, the intention was probably that this tax concerned only business entities and not entities that were not established or established for business. However, churches and religious companies are not exempted from paying the transaction tax, despite the fact that they are by no means established for business. Today, we are unfortunately burdened with this tax, but we will continue to appeal to the competent authorities and believe that it will be able to enforce a change in further updates of the law.