2026-09-14
the VAT Payer Register and How Podnikio Checks It
Slovakia publishes open data on which businesses are registered VAT payers, which are at risk of deregistration, and which bank accounts they've published for receiving payment.
A domestic Slovak invoice between two IČ DPH-registered businesses is normally the easy case — no reverse charge, no VIES lookup, just VAT at the standard rate. There is still one thing worth checking before the money moves: is the supplier a registered VAT payer in good standing, and is the account you're being asked to pay into actually theirs?
Quick answer
The Slovak Financial Administration (Finančná správa) publishes open data on registered VAT payers, on businesses at risk of having their VAT registration cancelled, and on the bank accounts (IBANs) payers have published for receiving payment. Paying into an account that isn't one the supplier has published is, by law, enough on its own to expose the payer to joint liability for VAT the supplier fails to remit — a flag on the at-risk list doesn't carry quite that same automatic weight, but it's still a live warning sign worth checking. Podnikio checks the registration and at-risk datasets automatically, in real time, for every domestic invoice, and checks the published-IBAN dataset too whenever the invoice actually has a bank account to verify.
Main takeaways
Why it matters
Slovak VAT law carries a similar underlying logic to its Czech and Polish neighbours, with its own specific mechanics. Under §69 of the VAT Act, if your supplier fails to remit the VAT on a domestic invoice, you can be made jointly liable for it — but only once two things are both true: the supplier actually didn't pay, and you knew, or had sufficient reason to know, that they wouldn't. Paying into an account they had not published at the time of payment is, by law, one situation where that's deemed true without any further proof needed. Being on the at-risk list works differently — it isn't, by itself, one of those automatic triggers — but it is exactly the kind of public information the tax office can point to if it later argues you should have known something was wrong. Either way, the registers exist precisely so that "I did not check" does not hold up as a defence, and checking them (and being able to show you did) is what protects you.
As with the Czech and Polish versions of this rule, the risk falls on whoever pays. If you are the one issuing the invoice, it is your own status and your own account being checked by whoever is about to pay you.
The three registers, and what each one tells you
- Registered VAT payers (ds_dphs) — confirms whether an IČ DPH is currently registered, and under which section of the VAT Act: §4 / §4b / §5 for an ordinary, full VAT payer, or the narrower §7 / §7a for a business registered only for cross-border reverse-charge purposes — conceptually similar to a Czech identifikovaná osoba, and a materially different status from a full registration. A number that is not found here at all is simply not currently registered.
- At-risk / deregistration-grounds list (ds_dphz) — a separate, smaller list of VAT payers the tax office has flagged as having grounds for deregistration. Appearing here does not mean the registration is already cancelled — it means there is an open concern worth knowing about before you rely on this counterparty.
- Published bank accounts (ds_dph_iban) — the IBANs a VAT payer has published for receiving payment. An invoice's bank-transfer account not appearing here is the second, independent condition that matters for joint liability.
Frequently asked questions
What's the practical difference between a full registration and §7/§7a?
A full VAT payer (§4, §4b, §5) charges and deducts VAT on domestic supplies in the ordinary way. A §7/§7a registration exists specifically so a business that is not a full VAT payer can still account for VAT on cross-border reverse-charge transactions — it does not make them a VAT payer for domestic invoices between the two of you. Treating a §7/§7a client as a full VAT payer on a domestic invoice is a mistake Podnikio's status check is there to prevent.
Being on the at-risk list — does that mean I should stop working with this client?
Not automatically. It means the tax office has identified a concern worth being aware of, not that the registration has already been cancelled. Use it as one input into your own judgement, and re-check periodically since the list changes.
Does this replace VIES?
No — different scope entirely. This is Slovakia's domestic open-data register; VIES is the EU's cross-border checker, and it knows nothing about at-risk flags or published Slovak IBANs. Podnikio runs whichever check actually applies based on where your client or supplier is.
Contact us
If you are unsure how the VAT payer register or the at-risk list applies to a specific payment, feel free to reach out. We offer a free initial consultation.