Register of financial statements

The administrator of the Register is the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic. The main purpose of the Register is to simplify access of third persons and public authorities to financial statements of entrepreneurs by means of accessing them directly through Internet. Although, the possibility to familiarize with the financial statements and to produce copies thereof has already been provided through the Collection of Deed of the relevant Commercial Register, this possibility was connected with the necessity to appear in person at the relevant Commercial Court and only upon previous agreement with official of the Collection of Deeds (usually not less than 3 days in advance).

Depositing of documents with the Register

The Act on Accounting stipulates which documents is the accounting entity (entrepreneur) obliged to deposit in the Register and from the practical point of view it mostly concerns the following documents:

a) ordinary individual financial statements,

b) extraordinary individual financial statements,

c) continuous individual financial statements,

d) ordinary consolidated financial statements,

e) extraordinary consolidated financial statements,

f) continuous consolidated financial statements,

g) auditor´s reports/opinions, and

h) voluntary financial statements of accounting entities.

Despite the fact that the Register was established as to January 1, 2012, in the year 2012 the current manner of depositing of documents shall still be applied, i.e. as before the amendment of the Act on Accounting financial statements shall form part of the tax return. The obligation of the entrepreneur to deposit financial statement in the new manner, i.e. to the Register, shall emerge for the first time in the year 2013, i.e. in relation to accounting period of the year 2012.

The documents may be deposited with the Register either in form of paper document or in electronic form. Financial statements in paper form shall be delivered to the respective Tax Office. Documents produced in electronic form shall be delivered via electronic filing room published on the web site of the Financial Headquarters of the Slovak Republic. Delivery of documents either to the respective Tax Office or via electronic filing room is considered fulfillment of the entrepreneur´s obligation to deposit and publish the documents. Given the above, by delivery of the documents (e.g. financial statements) to the Register or electronic filing room the entrepreneur´s obligation to publish the documents is fulfilled in full extent and the entrepreneur is no longer obliged to deposit the documents with the Collection of Deeds.

An entrepreneur is obliged to deposit the documents in electronic form if under the Act on Value Added Tax it is considered a VAT payer. Entrepreneurs who are not VAT payers may opt either for electronic or paper form.

Similarly as by depositing of documents with the Collection of Deeds, depositing with the Register also stipulates certain legally binding periods. An entrepreneur is obliged to deposit its ordinary and extraordinary individual financial statements no later than within six months as from the date to which the financial statements is prepared (with the exception of certain specific accounting entities which deposit their financial statements in periods set forth by specific legal regulations (e.g. non-investment funds).
In the event that an entrepreneur has not approved its financial statements within the 6 months period, it has to present that it is depositing a non-approved financial statements and notify the date of approval to the administrator additionally, however, no later than 5 business days following the approval.

Those entrepreneurs whose financial statements have to by audited are obliged to deposit also auditor´s report/opinion. If an entrepreneur´s financial statements is not audited (where it should be) within the 6 months period, the entrepreneur is obliged to present that it is depositing a non-audited financial statements and deposit the auditor´s report/opinion additionally, however, no later that within 1 year as from the end of the relevant accounting period.

Accessing of the documents and information from the Register

The Register itself is divided into public and closed part. The public part of the Register includes documents of selected accounting entities (entrepreneurs) and from the practical point of view it needs to be noted that it concerns all companies regardless of the legal form (limited liabilities companies, joint-stock companies, partnerships, limited partnerships) and cooperatives. Financial statements of these entrepreneurs have been published even before amendment of the Act on Accounting, e.g. in the Collection of Deeds.

The administrator of the Register shall make the deposited documents of entrepreneurs in the public part accessible electronically through its web site and free of charge, i.e. similarly as with the informative excerpts of companies from the Commercial Register also in this case it will be possible to print out particular financial statements of individual entrepreneurs without restrictions.

Documents of entrepreneurs deposited in the closed part of the Register shall be made accessible electronically and free of charge only to entities which they concern and also to public authorities and organs of self-government (e.g. municipalities).

Upon request and payment of administrative fee the administrator of the Register will issue a copy of any deposited document or confirmation that certain document is not deposited in the Register, i.e. similarly as it is nowadays with issuing copies of documents and confirmations on content of the Collection of Deeds of Commercial Register. The administrator will issue copy of the relevant document or confirmation that certain document is not deposited in the Register within 5 business days from payment of the administrative fee.