Working from Slovakia as a Germany resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Slovakia

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Slovakia, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueTax residency

   183 days of habitual presence in a calendar year makes you a Slovak tax resident on worldwide income

   Under Section 2 of Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income Tax, a natural person is a Slovak tax resident if they habitually stay in Slovakia for at least 183 days in a calendar year, whether continuously or across several periods. Once you meet this test you are taxed on worldwide income in Slovakia, subject to whatever relief the relevant tax treaty provides. Days spent in Slovakia solely for study or medical treatment do not count toward the 183 under a specific statutory exception.

2. Significant issueImmigration and visa

   Past 90 days a third-country national needs a residence permit, not just a longer visa

   Staying beyond the 90-day Schengen allowance without a Slovak temporary residence permit, EU Blue Card or equivalent status is unlawful. Slovakia has no grace period built for this, and enforcement runs through the Police Department for Foreigners.

3. Significant issueRight to work

   Serving Slovak clients or signing local contracts without authorisation is unlawful employment

   Once a third-country national visits Slovak customers or signs contracts on Slovak soil, this reads as employment or business activity carried out in Slovakia, needing the Employee Card, Single Permit, Blue Card, a self-employment permit or free movement rights. There is no quiet exception for occasional local client work.

4. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   A Slovak entity bearing the cost of your work makes you taxable from day one, regardless of the 183-day count

   Where a Slovak entity is the economic employer, meaning it benefits from the work or bears the cost, Slovak law can treat it as the deemed employer obliged to withhold payroll tax from the start, and the short-stay treaty relief does not apply once a Slovak permanent establishment carries the cost.

5. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running a Slovak company's real decisions from a Dutch kitchen table can drag its tax residence to the Netherlands

   Under Section 2(d)(2) of the Income Tax Act, a company is a Slovak tax resident if it has either its registered seat or its place of effective management in Slovakia. Place of effective management means where the key management and commercial decisions of the company's statutory and supervisory bodies are actually made, regardless of what the Commercial Register says. The same logic runs both ways: a Slovak-registered company actually directed from the Netherlands risks becoming a Dutch tax resident too, or at minimum opens a genuine dual-residence question that the treaty then has to resolve, while a foreign-registered company actually managed from Slovakia can equally become a Slovak tax resident.

6. Significant issuePermanent establishment risk

   Habitually signing contracts or exercising management authority from Slovakia can create a permanent establishment

   A foreign company can create a Slovak permanent establishment through a dependent agent who habitually concludes contracts on its behalf from Slovakia, or through a fixed place of business there. A deemed permanent establishment is taxed like a resident company, at the applicable corporate rate, and takes on the same registration, filing, payment and advance-payment obligations as a Slovak company.

Tax treaty between Germany and Slovakia