The HERRYS legal department has prepared a summary of the most important information you need for filing a real-estate tax return.
What is real-estate tax?
Real-estate tax is governed by Sections 4 to 18 of Act no. 582/2004 on local taxes and on the local fee for municipal waste and minor construction waste, and concerns taxes on apartments, commercial premises, buildings, and lands.
By the term “real-estate” we mean:
Lands – allotment gardens in gardening zones, gardens by houses, yards, building plots, arable land, grasslands, forests, vineyards, etc.
Buildings – a house, cottage, garage, minor building, e.g. a summer kitchen, barn, woodshop, gazebo, etc.
Apartments – flats in an apartment building, non-residential spaces (e.g. garage parking in the basement of an apartment building, or parts of the apartment where a change in use has been made and part or all of the apartment thus became a non-residential space).
Real-estate tax is a local tax that is paid to the municipality or city where the real-estate is located and is one of the main revenues to the local government budget. Real-estate tax rates are determined by each municipality/city by a generally binding regulation. The real-estate tax administrator is the municipality (city) in which the real-estate is located.
WHERE and HOW is the tax return filed?
The real-estate tax return is always filed at the respective city or municipality in whose land registry (cadastral) area your real-estate is located.
The deciding factor is not where the taxpayer is recorded as permanently resident, but rather the location of the real-estate that is the subject of the real-estate tax return. So, if you live, for example, in Trnava and you buy an apartment in Bratislava, you must file your real-estate tax return in Bratislava. Of course, you don’t have to travel to Bratislava to do that.
A real-estate tax return can be submitted by post, in person, or electronically. To file the tax return electronically, you need to have an electronic citizen ID card, and the service can be arranged on the portal: www.esluzbyba.sk.
The tax return must be filed on the prescribed specimen form. The prescribed tax return form also includes instructions on how to fill it out correctly. For help on filling out a real-estate tax return, you can also use these special instructions.
Types of tax return
The Act on Local Taxes in sanctions 99a and 99b distinguishes:
- real-estate tax return – your tax liability arose for the first time, i.e. you became the owner, administrator, tenant, or user of a first real-estate.
- partial real-estate tax return – you filed a real-estate tax return in the past and a change has occurred.
WHO is required to file a real-estate tax return and BY WHEN?
A natural or legal person (taxpayer) who became the owner, administrator, tenant, or user of a real-estate is required to file a real-estate tax return. Real-estate tax encompasses tax on lands, tax on buildings, and tax on apartments and non-residential premises in an apartment building.
For filing the tax return, the status as at 1 January 2023 is decisive, i.e. whoever is registered on 1 January 2023 as the owner on the title deed is subject to the tax obligation.
This means that if you were registered as the owner of the real-estate in the land register, for example on 3 January 2023, you can file the tax return by 31 January 2024. However, if you were registered as the owner of the real-estate in the land register on 1 January 2023, this means that you have incurred a tax obligation, and that you must file a tax return by 31 January 2023.
If you sold a real-estate during the course of 2022 and a new owner was recorded on the title deed on 1 January 2023, this means that you incurred a tax obligation as the seller on 31 December 2022, and from 1 January 2023 the buyer incurred the tax obligation. In this case, however, you are required to file a partial tax return due to the end of ownership of the real-estate – termination of the tax liability.
Taxpayers in the case of whom there has been no change in the ownership of their real-estate as at 1 January 2023 compared to the previous period do not need to file a real-estate tax return for 2023.
If there is a change to the type or dimensions of the land, the use purpose of the building, apartment, or non-residential premises, or if your ownership, administration, tenancy, or use of the real-estate has ceased, you are required to submit a partial real-estate tax return.
HOW OFTEN do you need to file a real-estate tax return?
A real-estate tax return does not need to be submitted every year; you need to submit one only if there has been any change to the real-estate (either in ownership, e.g. sale/purchase or e.g. a change in the use purpose of non-residential premises). Each year the taxpayer will then automatically receive a payment demand from the tax administrator with the amount of real-estate tax that the taxpayer must pay.
In Bratislava, the tax return is filed at the city’s Department of Local Taxes and Fees (oddelenie miestnych daní a poplatkov), which is located at Blagoevová street no. 9 in Petržalka.
WHAT is a partial tax return and WHO files a partial tax return?
If a taxpayer has already filed a real-estate tax return in the past and as of 1 January 2023 has become the owner of additional real-estate, or if there has been a change in the type or area of land, the use purpose of a building, apartment, or non-residential premises, or ownership of the real estate has ceased, they are obliged to file a partial real estate tax return within the same time limit (by 31 January 2023). The partial tax return is filed on the same prescribed specimen form. In the case of a real-estate sale completed in 2022, you need to state that it is a partial tax return for the termination of the tax liability.
If the land, building, apartment, or non-residential premises in an apartment building is jointly owned by more than one person, the real-estate tax return must be filed by each joint owner in the extent of their joint ownership interest. If the co-owners consent, on the basis of an agreement on the appointment of a representative for filing a real-estate tax return, to entrust one of the co-owners with filing the real-estate tax return, the tax return shall be filed by the representative who has been appointed by agreement of the co-owners, wherein the representative shall indicate this fact in the tax return. If the land, building, apartment, or non-residential premises in an apartment building is jointly owned by spouses, the tax return shall be filed by one of the spouses.
BY WHEN must the levied tax be paid?
The tax is due 15 days from the day when the decision, delivered to the taxpayer by the tax administrator, became final and valid. Real-estate tax can be paid in instalments, but such payment must be determined by the tax administrator.
WHAT ARE the real-estate tax rates in Bratislava?
The taxpayer does not calculate the amount of real-estate tax in the tax return. In the tax return, the taxpayer provides only the required information, on the basis of which the amount of tax is calculated by the tax administrator, according to the relevant rate schedule. Click here for the 2023 real-estate tax rates.
Exemption from the obligation to pay real-estate tax for 2023
Section 17 of the Act on Local Taxes regulates which real-estate properties are exempt from the tax, and for which a lower tax may be set. A municipality or city may exempt from real-estate tax or reduce the amount of tax for taxpayers aged 62 years and above, or for taxpayers who are severely disabled, receive benefits in material need, etc.
Links for references in the text:
Confirmation of Filing a Tax Return
Information on the Bratislava City Authority website
Contact information for the Bratislava City Authority tax administrator:
+421 259 356 954, dane@bratislava.sk
Oddelenie miestnych daní, poplatkov a licencií (Department of Local Taxes, Fees & Licences)
Blagoevova ulica č. 9
P.O.BOX 76 850 05 Bratislava 55
