On 28 November 2020, the sixth anti-coronavirus legislative package – the Act Determining the Intervention Measures to Mitigate the Consequences of the Second Wave of COVID-19 Epidemic (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 175/20; »ZUIOPDVE« or »PKP 6«) entered into force. Under certain conditions, the Act allows for a deferral of taxes and contributions as well as credit obligations in order to facilitate the payment of such obligations to entities, which were economically affected by the second wave of the epidemic.
Deferred payment of taxes and contributions
At the request of a taxpayer, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter: FURS) may allow a deferral of the payment of taxes or contributions for a period of up to two years or allow such payment in a maximum of 24 monthly installments over a period of 24 months. The deferral also applies to prepayment of tax or withholding tax.
For the period for which the payment of taxes or contributions is deferred or the payment is allowed in installments, no interest should be charged on the deferred amount of taxes or contributions. In the event that FURS has approved the payment in installments and the taxpayer is late with the payment of an individual installment, all subsequent unpaid installments shall become due on the due date of the unpaid installment.
The application must be submitted electronically through the eDavki application, and FURS will have to decide on the application within 8 days of its receipt. The measure is valid until 31 December 2020, and the Government may extend it for a further period of six months.
Deferred payment of credit obligations
PKP 6 also interferes also with the provisions of the Act Determining the Intervention Measure of Deferred Payment of Borrowers’ Liabilities (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 36/20; »ZIUOPOK«). The borrower, who is temporarily unable to repay his loan in accordance with the credit agreement due to circumstances related to the consequences of the COVID-19, can request a deferral of payment if the payment of liabilities, arising from the loan, was not yet due on the day of the second declaration of epidemic (19 October 2020). The measure also applies to credit agreements, newly concluded during the period of validity of the Act.
The range of beneficiaries of this measure is wider on the basis of PKP 6 – namely the measure is no longer limited only to citizens of the Republic of Slovenia, but also extends the range of eligible investors to natural persons who have permanent residence in the Republic of Slovenia. The application for deferral of payment must be addressed to the bank no later than 31 December 2020, and the bank grants the borrower a deferral of payment of obligations under the loan agreement for the period until 31 January 2021.
The application for deferral of payment of obligations from the credit agreement must be accompanied by a statement that the borrower has settled due liabilities from mandatory contributions, taxes and other duties on the day of submitting the application, or that payment is deferred or installments payment is allowed.
ZUIOPDVE also increases the maximum allowed loan principal amount of an individual borrower, the payment of which is guaranteed by the Republic of Slovenia as a guarantor, up to the amount of 25% of sales revenues in 2019 or double the amount of labor costs for 2019.
