Î
Transfer of business
•
Under Slovak law, it is not possible to transfer/
assign all rights and obligations under the lease (i.e.
whole contractual relationship) by a unilateral decision of one
of the parties. The validity of such an assignment on basis of
an agreement of the tenant, landlord and a third party is ques-
tionable, but regardless seen quite often in practice.
•
The creditor (e.g. landlord) can assign its claim against the
debtor (e.g. tenant) to a third party (e.g. bank) without prior
consent of the debtor unless otherwise agreed by the parties.
•
The third party (e.g. mother company of the tenant) can
assume the obligations of the debtor (e.g. tenant) only with the
consent of the creditor (e.g. landlord).
•
The lease of non residential premises can be transferred by vir-
tue of law, if it is a contractual relationship that is considered to
form a part of an enterprise, which is being transferred under
the agreement on transfer of an enterprise or its part
(zmluva
o predaji podniku)
.
Î
Rent and its evolution during the lease
•
Amount of net rent is freely set by an agreement of the
contractual parties.
•
.Indexation of the rent is market standard and the contractual
parties are free to choose any index (which is sufficiently de-
termined in the agreement) – commonly used is the Monetary
Union Index of Consumer Prices published by Eurostat;
•
There is no statutory indexation of rent for standard leases.
Î
Renewed lease
•
Renewal of lease of the non residential premises is possible
upon an agreement of the contractual parties without any
limitations.
•
Generally, the prolongation of the lease of non residential
premises is subject to the same conditions, unless the parties
agree otherwise.
TaX
Î
Property tax
•
The property tax related to owned real estate is determined by
the municipalities, so the tax varies depending on where the
real estate is located (even within the same city) and also on
the purpose it is used for (e.g. in Bratislava the property tax on
buildings for 2014 varies from EUR 0.36 per 1 m2 per year to
EUR 8.30 per 1 m2 per year).
Î
Property transfer tax
•
In Slovakia, the transfer tax for real estate was abolished on
January 1, 2005.
Î
Direct acquisition of a property
•
Income (gain) acquired from direct sale of a real estate pro-
perty is subject to income tax, while exemptions may apply.
Currently, the tax rates are 19 %/25% for natural persona and
22 % for legal entities.
•
Direct sale of a building (or its part) including the land plot,
on which it is built, is exempt from the value added tax (VAT),
provided that the sale is made five years after the occupancy
Investor Guide to Europe 2014
| 87
per-
mit
was issued or
after the building
was actually used for at
least five years for the first time;
however, the taxpayer can decide not
to make use of the exemption. Exempt from
VAT is also a direct sale of a land plot (except
for land plots determined for construction). Please
note that exemptions may apply. The current VAT rate in
Slovakia is at 20%.
Î
acquisition of shares in a company
•
Capital gains from the sale of shares in a company are subject
to income tax, while exemptions may apply.
•
The capital gains from sale of shares are not subject to VAT,
while exemptions may apply.
