In the past year, representatives of tourism companies informed the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MGRT) about many complaints from, and dissatisfaction of, their business partners – foreign bus and coach undertakings – due to the exceptionally complicated and lengthy procedures for calculating VAT in Slovenia. The Directorate for Tourism and Internationalisation at the MGRT worked with representatives of the Ministry of Finance to agree on several simplifications in this regard.
It was established that the greatest administrative burden for foreign bus and coach undertakings which occasionally provide passenger services in the territory of Slovenia is the obligation to submit monthly VAT calculations. The Ministry of Finance thus prepared a proposal to amend the regulations in order to permit these taxable entities to submit annual calculations, which was passed by the National Assembly in November 2014.
A taxable entity which has no headquarters or a permanent business unit and no permanent or usual residence in Slovenia and provides services of international road passenger transport on the Slovenian territory can use the simplified procedure of registration, calculation and payment of VAT under this special arrangement if they fulfil certain conditions (for example, not exercising the right to VAT deduction).
This special arrangement can be only applied to occasional international passenger transport, and not for international scheduled passenger transport.
The use of the special arrangement for taxable entities which meet the conditions for its use if optional.
Taxable entities can submit applications for a tax number and a VAT identification number to the tax authority from 1 March 2015 onwards electronically, to the special e-mail address kc-potnik.fu(at)gov.si, which will be available to taxable entities from 1 March 2015 onwards.
A taxable entity which performs the service of occasional international passenger transport shall submit to the tax authority an application in electronic form for a tax identification number if such a number has not been issued to them, and an application for a VAT identification number before they start providing the service of occasional international passenger transport in Slovenia.
When providing the service of occasional international passenger transport, a taxable entity must possess in their vehicles a certificate from the tax authority confirming that they have submitted an application for a VAT identification number, which is later replaced by a certificate or a copy of the certificate of identification for the needs of VAT.
Before providing any passenger transport service in Slovenia, a taxable entity must inform the tax authority about this in the electronic form.
The tax period is equal to one calendar year.
The occasional transport operator must submit the special VAT calculation in electronic form by the end of January for the previous year and also pay VAT by this deadline (up to now, the calculations have been monthly).
We believe that this special arrangement will have a positive effect on the implementation of international transport by foreign bus and coach undertakings in Slovenia and thus raise the number of tourists and increase the contribution of transport to Slovenia’s balance of payments.