For years, business owners in Slovakia could easily register cars under their company, get a full VAT refund, and drive their children to school – and nobody cared. Starting in 2026, this peaceful situation is over: the Finančná správa (Slovak Financial Administration) has officially started checking cars for which companies received a full tax refund. They will look not only at papers but also at parking lots, reports RTVS.
If inspectors find that a car with a 100% refund is actually used for family matters, and the company cannot prove otherwise, they will have to return all tax deductions to the state and pay a fine. For many Ukrainians who run businesses here through a živnosť (sole-trader licence) or s.r.o. (limited liability company) and bought cars for their company, this is a direct financial threat.
What has changed since January 1, 2026
Since the beginning of the year, stricter rules for VAT refunds on company cars have been in effect in Slovakia. The logic now is: if a car can theoretically be used for private purposes, the company can only refund 50% of the VAT – on the car's price, fuel, leasing payments, and maintenance.
A full refund, meaning 100%, has not disappeared. But it must be earned. The company must:
- Submit a special notice to the tax office about the car's exclusive business use.
- Keep a detailed electronic travel log for each car.
- Have internal rules that prohibit private use of the car.
The key point here is the electronic log. It must record every trip: start and end time, mileage, driver's details, and the purpose of the route. Scanned paper trip tickets, which were accepted before, are no longer accepted, explains Meridian Global Services.
They will check not papers, but the asphalt
The Financial Administration honestly warns: there will be no raids or crackdowns, that is not their method. Instead, inspectors will analyze electronic databases, including data from the Ministry of Interior, and conduct on-site monitoring. Simply put – they will look at where and when a car, for which a 100% refund was claimed, is parked.
If a "strictly work" car regularly spends the night in front of the director's apartment building or is parked at a shopping center in the evening, the company will be expected to provide explanations. If you cannot explain the business necessity of the route, a fine will be imposed, and you will be required to return the deductions, details Startitup.
Neighbors tightened their belts even earlier
Slovakia is not a pioneer here, but rather catching up. In the Czech Republic, tax inspectors have been driving around the parking lots of schools, shopping centers, concert halls, and sports events for several months, looking for cars registered to companies. The mere presence of a car in such a place is not a conviction, but the company will be asked to justify the business need for the trip. Additionally, since January 1, 2024, the Czechs have limited VAT refunds for expensive cars: if a car costs more than 2 million Czech crowns, the tax is refunded only up to this amount – 420,000 CZK. And against this background, the corporate income tax in the Czech Republic has also increased from 19% to 21%.
Poland has taken a technological path. There, the tax office uses automatic license plate recognition systems on highways and compares the actual routes of company cars with travel logs. If cameras see a car where it shouldn't be according to documents – companies are asked for explanations. In the first month of such monitoring, over 1,000 entrepreneurs received penalty notices.
What you should not do now
Experts agree that the tax office has not invented anything new. The rules existed before, but violations were overlooked. Now, with budgets strained, every refund is under a magnifying glass.
If you have a company car with a 100% VAT refund, check three things: has the notice been submitted to the tax office, is an electronic travel log kept in the proper format, and is the car actually used as a family car? If even one point does not match – it is safer to switch to a mixed mode with a 50% refund than to explain to an inspector what the company's "truck" was doing near a school at 8:15 AM.
