Slovak Financial Law News 2004

New Act on Mineral Oil Excise Tax

Act No. 98/2004 Coll. on Excise Tax on Mineral Oil

The new Act on Excise Tax on Mineral Oil (the ``Act'') fully repeals and replaces Act No. 239/2001 Coll. on Excise Tax on Mineral Oils and related implementary regulations issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic.

The main reason for adopting the new Act is the requirement of harmonisation of the Slovak legislation in force with directives of the Council of the European Union, mainly with Council Directive 92/12/EEC on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products. Therefore, the text of the Act includes a regulation of the position of so-called ``authorized recipient'', intracommunity transfer of mineral oil and also import from third countries and export to third countries, implementation of a uniform accompanying document to be used upon the transfer of mineral oil within the territory of the Community and regulation of forwarding business.

The Act regulates the taxation of mineral oils which are subject to excise tax within the tax territory, i.e. the territory of the Slovak Republic. Section 4 of the Act stipulates a list of substances considered to be mineral oils for the purposes of this Act. For example, these include some types of fuels or gas. The subject of tax includes so specified mineral oils produced in the territory of the Slovak Republic, supplied within the territory of the Slovak Republic from other Member State of the European Union, or imported into the Slovak Republic from a third country.

Tax administration is carried out by the customs office. Territorial jurisdiction of the customs office shall be governed by the registered office in case of a legal entity, or the permanent residence in case of a natural person.

The tax base is the quantity of mineral oil expressed in litres at a temperature of 15^C or in kilograms. The tax shall be calculated as a multiplication of the tax base and the particular tax rate. Tax rates depend on a type of mineral oil and amount to SKK 18,000 per 1,000 litre at the maximum.

Unless the Act stipulates otherwise, the tax duty arises by release of the mineral oil for tax free circulation as of the date precisely stipulated in this Act.

The taxation period is essentially one calendar month, while the Act also exactly determines a time period for filing a tax return and the tax maturity.

The Act also regulates in detail in its further provisions the possibilities of tax exemption, tax refund and suspension of tax. It also defines several important terms, namely an enterprise for mineral oil production, tax warehouse, mineral oil warehouse, authorized recipient and tax representative. In addition, the Act exactly stipulates who is considered to be a tax debtor.

The Act also regulates in detail the issues related to the transfer, import and export of mineral oil as well as the issue of mineral oil forwarding business.

The customs office may impose a penalty on a legal entity or natural person for breach of its duties in the disposal of mineral oil up to SKK 500,000, or a penalty up to the amount of tax pertaining to the quantity of dispatched mineral oil.

This Act came into force on 1 March 2004, save for certain provisions which became effective on 1 May 2004.

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