Slovakia is one of the first countries to try to tax foreign digital economy firms such as AirBnB and Booking.com. By law, these companies were obliged to register to pay income taxes in Slovakia as of January this year, but just one company, Czech TPF Group, has registered. The tax authority FS has therefore begun registering them involuntarily. It has already registered the first firm, Swiss Expedia Lodging Partner Services, and is in the process of registering Booking.com,

German investigators of last year’s kidnapping of a Vietnam national, Trinh Xuan Thanh, from Germany to Vietnam raised serious suspicions against Slovakia. They have almost no doubt that Thanh left the Schengen area in a Slovak government plane. German police say that last year’s meeting of Slovak and Vietnamese interior ministers had only one purpose – to get Thanh from Bratislava to Moscow (and then to Vietnam). Last week, a German court sentenced a Vietnamese national to t

Slovensko je jednou z prvých krajín, ktoré sa snažia zdaniť zahraničné firmy podnikajúce v prostredí digitálnej ekonomiky, ako je AirBnB alebo Booking.com. Podľa zákona sa mali tieto spoločnosti dobrovoľne zaregistrovať na platenie daní z príjmu od januára t.r., doteraz sa však na Finančnej správe (FS) zaregistrovala iba jedna spoločnosť (česká TPF group). FS tak zahájila proces úradnej registrácie pri ďalších firmách. Prvá firma, Expedia Lodging Partner Services zo Švajčiars

Nemeckí vyšetrovatelia vlaňajšieho únosu Vietnamca Trinh Xuan Thanha z Nemecka do Vietnamu vzniesli vážne podozrenie voči Slovensku. Nemajú takmer žiadne pochybnosti, že Thanh opustila schengenský priestor v slovenskom vládnom lietadle. Podľa nich vtedajšie stretnutie vietnamského ministra vnútra To Lama a ministra vnútra SR Roberta Kaliňáka malo jediný účel, dostať Thanha z Bratislavy do Moskvy (a potom do Vietnamu). Nemecký súd minulý týždeň odsúdil Vietnamca na tri roky a

Czech energy firm Unipetrol, controlled by PKN Orlen of Poland, is considering entering the Slovak petrol station market. It could use its brands Benzina and PKN Orlen. Allegedly, it will buy several dozen stations in Slovakia by the end of this year. Unipetrol declined to comment. Slovakia has around 900 stations. Slovnaft (250) is the market leader, followed by OMV (90) and Shell (84). (euro.cz)

Credit rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings confirmed Slovakia’s rating at A+ with a stable outlook. The expected solid economic growth will be driven by household consumption, EU fund investments, exports, and new automotive investments. The agencies praise the stability of the local banking sector and new central bank NBS measures to curb lending growth, as well as stable public finances that benefit from higher than planned tax intake. They point out risks c

Český Unipetrol, pod kontrolou poľskej firmy PKN Orlen, zvažuje vstup na slovenský trh čerpacích staníc. Používal by tu značku Benzina alebo PKN Orlen. Údajne tu chce kúpiť ešte do konca t.r. niekoľko desiatok čerpacích staníc. Unipetrol informáciu odmietol komentovať. Na Slovensku je 900 čerpacích staníc. Najväčším hráčom je Slovnaft (250), nasledujú OMV (90) a Shell (84). (euro.cz)

Ratingové agentúry Standard & Poor's a Fitch Ratings potvrdili Slovensku rating A+ so stabilným výhľadom. Za hnací motor slovenskej ekonomiky považujú agentúry vysokú spotrebu domácností, investície z eurofondov, rast exportu a nové investície v automobilovom priemysle. Agentúry pozitívne hodnotia stabilitu bankového sektora a nové opatrenia na spomalenie zadlžovania domácností, ako aj stabilné verejné financie, ktoré ťažia z vyšších daňových príjmov. Naopak upozorňujú na riz

Swiss firm Optotune has set up a research center for special lenses in Trnava last year, with over 50 engineers. This January, the government approved a €1.3m investment stimulus for the project. Interestingly, the Swiss company decided not to use the stimulus, as the project is doing much better than planned. Since 2002, 50 out of 200 approved state investment stimuli have not been used, mostly due to companies not meeting the required criteria. Since 2016, the government ha

Hyza, the largest poultry processor in Slovakia and owned by Andrej Babiš, is completing an investment into capacity expansion by 2,000 to 12,000 chicken per hour. Last year, Hyza invested €9m, of which €0.6m was covered by EU funds. It employs 900 and processed 56,000 tons of poultry in 2017. Its net profit fell 10% last year, to €1.8m, and its sales fell 2% to €91.4m. (etrend.sk)