Before digitisation, we should study the individual laws and the associated legislative requirements. We draw your attention to the individual laws that should not be forgotten:

1. Act No. 18/2018 Coll. on the protection of personal data and on amending certain laws (GDPR)

Especially when digitising payroll accounting and HR, employment contracts

2. Act No. 431/2002 Coll. on accounting

Preservation and archiving of accounting records, transformation of an accounting record, the verifiability of an accounting record as well as the definition of the accounting record itself

3. Act No. 222/2004 Coll. on VAT

Invoice storage, invoice and its content

4. Act No. 395/2002 Coll. on archives and registers
5. Act 305/2013 Coll. o electronic form of exercising the competences of public authorities and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts ( e-Government Act)

In particular, conversion and guaranteed conversion, the procedure for guaranteed conversion, the certification clause, the limitation on conversion.

An entity may decide within its internal guidelines whether to keep its accounts electronically (digitally), on paper (as most entities do now), or in a combination of electronic and paper formats. The amendment introduces the equivalence of the paper and electronic form of the accounting record, subject to the following criteria:

The paper form of the accounting record:

• The credit note must be made on paper or printed using software, sent or received as a paper document

Electronic form of the accounting record:

• The accounting entry must be made and received in an electronic format (determined by the accounting entry originator or by agreement with the accounting entry recipient) and sent by electronic means (directly from the software) or by electronic mail (e-mail)

The following three requirements apply to both paper and electronic forms of the accounting record:

1. The authenticity of the origin of the accounting record must be ensured (the maker must be able to prove that he has actually made the record, e.g. on the basis of a written order, the beneficiary accepts the accounting record by the act of paying it)
2. Integrity of the content of the accounting record (the record must be processed or scanned so that no alteration occurs when the record is transformed or sent and made available)
3. Legibility of the accounting record (human readability must be ensured)

The accounting entity has the obligation to ensure requirements from the moment of making an accounting record, during its transformation, receipt and transmission, disclosure, until the end of its retention period.

The authenticity and integrity of the accounting record (verifiability of the accounting record) may be ensured pursuant to §32:

• Signature record of the responsible person (handwritten signature, qualified electronic signature, similar demonstrable signature record – code, code, or character)
• Electronic data exchange
• An internal control system for accounting records

An important fact to remember about reliability and integrity is that it is the responsibility of the entity to ensure the integrity of the accounting record so that it cannot be modified and potentially misused. An internal directive (or internal directive) should be used to define how accounting records are to be secured.

The most important section in the digitization of accounting is §33 of the Accounting Act, which speaks about the transformation of the accounting record. The question remains how the majority of accountants will cope with the digitalization of documents (I dare say that most accounting software is partially ready for digitalization) and whether they will be able to “shed” their habits (iron shirts) and adapt to the online trend, which to some extent is also offered by the amendment we are discussing.

Transformation of an accounting entry and its elements

1. By transformation we mean – a change of the form of an accounting record (whether from paper to electronic or vice versa) while the integrity of the accounting record is preserved
2. The transformation can only be carried out if the accounting entry is provable.
3. Transformation from paper to electronic form can be done:

1. By guaranteed conversion in accordance with specific regulations
2. By scanning into a file format in raster graphic form (e.g. an image saved in .pdf, .png, .jpg, .tiff format), preserving the completeness of the accounting record, the content and visual consistency, the legibility of the entire area of the accounting record and the integrity of the content.
3. The transformation from electronic to paper form can be carried out:

1. Guaranteed conversion in accordance with special regulations
2. Using a computer output device that allows printing on paper, while maintaining the completeness of the accounting record, the content and visual consistency, the legibility of the entire area of the accounting record and the integrity of the content.

And now BINGO!!! You ask if it is necessary to keep the original cash receipt from the purchase of small assets up to 1700,- EUR? The amendment says the following: ‘An accounting record whose form is the result of a transformation of an accounting record and is deemed to be evidential shall not be required to be presented in its original form, unless special regulations provide otherwise.

7 tips on what an entity that decides to keep and archive its accounts digitally should keep in mind.

1. The entity should determine how to store accounting records (appropriate accounting software), for example electronically, so that it can make the electronic records available (to the auditor, tax authority, or disclose them to the public)
2. Accounting records must be archived by the entity for 10 years following the year in which they were last used (it is therefore advisable to choose secure storage that is also backed up at sufficient intervals)
3. When exchanging and sending electronic invoices, the parties should sign a written agreement on sending electronic invoices
4. When circulating electronic documents, a safeguard mechanism must be provided to ensure that the content of the accounting record is not misused or modified. At the same time, the electronic documents must contain a signature record of the responsible person
5. When transforming from electronic to paper form, the transformation may only be carried out for electronic documents that do not contain a qualified electronic signature or a qualified electronic seal
6. A change of an accounting record from paper to electronic form by scanning may be made only once (provided that it is legible and complete). The provision implies that transformation cannot be carried out if the documentary record has already been subject to transformation
7. Pri digitalizácii je dôležitým parametrom , ktorý zabezpečí štyri najdôležitejšie faktory a to:
   1. approval process for electronic documents
   2. archiving of electronic documents
   3. transmission and protection of electronic documents
   4. and Object Character Recognition (OCR) extraction of electronic documents.

Have you kept your accounts in paper form so far and are you wondering whether it is possible to transform the accounts into electronic form for previous years?

The amendment to the Accounting Act also had this in mind and states that the relevant provision on the protection of accounting records as amended from 2022 may also be applied to the retention and protection of accounting records created before 2022, provided that the other relevant provisions of the Accounting Act are complied with.

In other words, an entity may transform all accounting records from previous years if the requirements are met:

• the reliability of the origin of accounting records
• the integrity of their contents
• Readability
• and demonstrability.

At Highgate Group, we are ready for the pace of digitisation, where we are trying to make our clients’ work easier with the handover of documents and their archiving. The right cocktail of automation, archiving and digitisation saves time and money on the client’s side, which they can invest in the development of their business. The automation of processes gives time to deal with individual consultations in the field of accounting or economic consulting or tax optimization.

In the context of doing business through companies, it is first of all necessary to note that a company is a separate legal entity, which is strictly separated from its ultimate owner – a natural person.

If this were not the case, the owner of a limited company (e.g.: a.s. or s.r.o.) would not be able to enjoy the benefits of relatively absolute limited liability for the obligations of the company it owns. In practice, it would be abusive on the one hand not to be liable for the obligations of your company as an owner and at the same time to use the company’s assets (including funds) for your private needs.

Such strict corporate separation must also be seen from a tax and accounting perspective. There are a number of cases in practice where the tax authorities have reclassified various withdrawals by the owner/statutor of a company as employment income or other income.

In both cases, these are very disadvantageous options from a tax-tax point of view. Even in certain circumstances , it may be a criminal offence to arbitrarily send funds from a business to the owner. Not only tax but also economic.

For more information, see the article by Peter Varga Corporate money for private purposes: examples and most common mistakes.

In practice, small businessmen in particular like to withdraw money from their company account for private consumption. This increases the “cash box” in the accounts.

Indeed, smaller companies have a common “habit” of not paying out company profits. They are generally discouraged from doing so by the dividend tax. They are also motivated by the fact that, with small numbers, they may not attract the attention of the tax authorities.

It is also not common for smaller companies to pay themselves a market salary/statutory remuneration due to the high levy burden. If the owner wants to satisfy himself, apart from using company assets for private purposes, in practice he often pays himself in various other, non-standard ways.

As a result, the aforementioned high cash on the balance sheet or a high amount of receivables from the shareholders arises. In the liabilities, this gives rise to the so-called ‘cash and cash equivalents’ for a change. Dividend capacity. If the company in question one day runs into financial difficulties, this could have the following effects on the owner/statutor of the company:

• liability of the statutory body with all its assets for the non-compliance of the treasury with the actual situation;
• the obligation of an owner to pay the company its entire claim, such owner being exposed to the full amount of its assets in connection with that obligation;
• the owner’s liability for the company’s insolvency (for example, including for the payment of dividends), where the owner is liable for the whole of its assets; or
• the illegality of the payment of profits from the company;
• tax assessment (other income/employment income or dividend);
• the offence of tax and insurance fraud;
• one of the economic offences (e.g. defamation of a creditor, embezzlement, etc.).

We create tailored ways for clients to get out of the company. We consider this not only from an accounting and tax perspective, but also from a legal perspective. It is also important to note that Commercial Code relatively tightly restricts the company’s ability to disburse the company’s resources to its owners.

And it is precisely the experience with the corona and the fact that today’s world does not provide complete predictability of economic impacts that actions in the company also need to be taken preemptively.

In this context, we therefore provide the following services in particular:

• Analysis of legally defensible options for buying out of the company;
• tax optimisation associated with the payout from the company (Tax optimisation – domestic and foreign options);
• representation in tax proceedings;
• Preparation of the relevant legal documentation and partiesparenting the existing state of “paying out” in the company.

Each of these supplies has different tax implications. In addition, it is important to distinguish whether the remuneration is paid to a legal entity or an individual and in which country the influencer in question is established. This is a complex topic and we therefore provide essential support to clients in this regard.

Even during the pandemic, we still register a relatively high interest in information about the possibility of moving temporarily or permanently outside Slovakia. At cryptocurrencies the motive is mainly more favourable taxation, for digital nomads it is other than tax reasons. However, travelling brings different tax implications.

Payroll accounting

The payroll accountant’s agenda is not only about the correct calculation of wages, but also about payroll and related legal advice. Almost every client wonders when they can “employ” a sole trader instead of a salaried employee, calculating maternity pay or how to set up an employee share ownership scheme (called an ESOP). We therefore provide our clients with:

• Comprehensive payroll management;
• Levy and pandemic advice;
• Advising on the setup of employee stock and option plans (ESOPs);
• Advice on the use of “freelancers” as a workforce instead of employees;

We think that every client appreciates it when their employees do not approach them because of a miscalculated or late payment. We strive to be a reliable and responsible partner. We adapt our internal structure accordingly. We want and need to be fungible, which is why we have a double layer of fungibility.

In addition, in our view, managing payroll for outsourced clients is currently subject to three main challenges:

• emphasis on automation;
• conscription and pandemic counselling; and
• interdependence with labour and tax law.

Emphasis on automation

We try to communicate with our clients and set up the process of submitting attendance and salary information so that it is automatically fed into the accounting software. We want the client to have access to this information and be able to view their current employment status online in the context of all relevant details (e.g.: unused vacation, reserves, floating hours, etc.). If data transfer is set up well with the client, human error on both sides is also minimized.

Clients nowadays are not only interested in correct payroll calculation. This is largely handled by payroll software. In our experience, clients are interested in this added value, for example:

• calculating maternity pay for their employees/contractors;
• simulating the impact of school closures;
• the R&R; or
• abolition of the maximum social security assessment base.

Particularly during the first wave of the pandemic, it became clear how effective proactive payroll management can be. A number of clients were caught out in the first few weeks by income freezes, non-payment of invoices and less work. The state tried to respond to the whole situation in some way, creating a patchwork of complex tax-tax-pandemic measures that had to be actively managed.

And there is our space.

Payroll issues are not comprehensively covered unless legal advice is also part of the advice. That is why we help our accounting clients as a standard in labour law matters. The Labour Code, together with levy obligations, can make an employer’s factual as well as financial prospects significantly uncomfortable at key moments. This was perhaps most evident to affected employers during the first full pandemic. We are convinced that the client will appreciate having not only payroll accounting but also practical legal advice under one roof.

The content of the levy and pandemic advice is not only tax or levy optimisationbut also advice on social insurance and pandemic benefits . In our experience, clients are mainly interested in the setup:

• Maternity;
• OHR;
• unemployment benefits;
• retirement;
• of sickness;

as well as the relationships between different types of benefits and their combinations with pandemic or employment office benefits.

Payroll consultancy does not only consist in the correct calculation of wages, sending transfer orders and reports to public authorities. Payroll consulting is also about providing our clients with comfort in their individual queries. For example, the issue of maternity pay is a frequent query from smaller companies in particular, where answers are sought not only by the owners themselves, but also by their employees and “contractors”.

The amount of maternity pay depends on a number of factors. One of them is the legal form under which the individual carries out gainful activity. Of course, the amount of the assessment base and, last but not least, the period during which the gainful activity in question was/is carried out are also important. The amount of the maternity allowance increases each year, with the maximum amount gradually approaching EUR 2 000/month for a 31-day month. That is why the parent is a relevant source of income not only for employees and contractors, but also for the owners of our clients themselves.

In addition to maternity, clients are often interested in other forms of state support in various life situations. This mainly concerns unemployment benefit, the so-called. These include unemployment benefits, sick pay, or some form of pension. Individual doses have derivatives in pandemic periods, which greatly complicates clients’ routine navigation. In the context of levy advice, we thus advise clients on the legal and effective use of these institutes.

The pandemic in all its glory has exposed the potential complexity of the legal order.

Indeed, various pandemic exceptions, derivatives and new institutes have become part of it. And, especially during the pandemic, the legal order was subject to constant change. This is mainly due to the dynamic political and pandemic environment. This made it difficult for most clients to understand.

And it is in such an environment that our role is to monitor current developments on behalf of our clients and to advise them on their individual queries to a relevant extent.

Issuing paper invoices is now a thing of the past. Apart from general ecological and economic reasons (toner, printer and paper costs), paper invoicing makes e-commerce accounting significantly more expensive. This is because such accounting requires manual inputs from the accountant, while the cost of labour continues to rise dynamically.

An invoice in electronic form (e.g. in .pdf format) is fully sufficient for proper posting and control of a given transaction. Although the tax authorities from time to time require a paper form, there is always room to print documents only to the extent required by the tax authorities. In addition, especially for larger e-shops, the storage of so many issued invoices would be a significant logistical hurdle.

As the number of documents increases, so does the necessity of the need to efficiently link the e-shop with the billing or accounting system. Connecting an e-shop(WooCommerce, Opencart, PrestaShop, Shoptet and others) via API with the right invoicing or accounting system (e.g. SuperInvoice) or accounting software(Pohoda, Omega and others) or connector is a necessity not only for the needs of reducing the cost of accounting, but especially for business transparency.

The system can handle this without manual input and the entrepreneur can only do occasional checking. Invoices are generated automatically, either in the accounting software, invoicing software or directly in your e-shop, where they are fed into the accounting software with the help of a connector or API connection.

If invoices, credit notes or advance invoices are already issued automatically in the system, there is often a problem with importing these documents into the accountingsystem. If they are imported manually, this is inefficient. In fact, there are now a large number of tools available to eliminate these manual inputs. It is therefore essential to set up the correct data structure for the accounting software so that the content of invoices and other documents is automatically fed into the accounting software.

So the client does not pay for man power, but a small fee for automation and pairing and the subsequent check by the accountant.

The agenda of payment gateways / bank accounts is very wide for e-shops.
Choosing the right payment gateway and bank account can save you a lot of
money. In fact, when accounting for payment gateways, it is necessary
to record every payment received / sent in the bank account / in the accounting
journal. If an e-shop, for example, has 500 invoices issued per month,
which equates to 500 payments received, this is an extremely high number for
manual recording of movements on individual payment gateways
by an accountant. In Slovakia the most used payment gateways are GoPay, Stripe, PayPal, ComGate, Revolut.
Often the standard payment by bank transfer is used. With payment
gateways, the initial setup is important, then the correct structure for
import into the accounting software with automatic matching to issued
invoices and credit notes. For a start-up e-shop, this agenda can be handled
manually as well. However, if the entrepreneur has higher ambitions, proper setup of
import from payment gateways is another necessity.

The amendment to the VAT Act from 01.07.2021 unified the rules of all EU member states regarding the supply of goods at a distance (e-shop) and the supply of electronic services (services related to the original MOSS). If a Slovak trading company or a natural taxable person exceeds a turnover in the supply of goods at a distance and the supply of electronic services to persons without a VAT ID number in the aggregate of € 10 000,00, it must register:

• for special tax treatment through the so-called OSS, or;
• by registration in the respective States of the place of supply of such sales.

We provide both forms of registration for clients according to preference.

Contemporary e-commerce is closely linked to the use of so-called. Influencers, who advertise/sell products and services in e-shops. However, when paying rewards to influencers, it is necessary to pay great attention to tax risks. If the e-shop incorrectly withholds tax or fails to prove to the tax authority that it did not have to withhold tax, the tax authority may charge tax of up to 35% of the amount paid to the influencer + penalties, which may amount to up to 100% of the tax levied.

Influencers generally provide these types of deliveries for the e-shop:

• “placement” of products in their posts;
• lending your face for advertising purposes;
• “merchandise”;
• appearances at events or ‘posing’ with products; or
• so called. sponsorship agreements.

Each of these supplies has different tax implications. In addition, it is important to distinguish whether the remuneration is paid to a legal entity or an individual and in which country the influencer in question is established. This is a complex topic and we therefore provide essential support to clients in this regard.

E-shops, like any other company, have the opportunity to take advantage of legal opportunities for tax and levy optimisation (Domestic and foreign tax optimisation options). In addition to the standard tools, due to their nature, other options for more efficient taxation can be linked to e-shops.

We can also provide such additional advisory services for accounting clients. We provide these services either on a professional consultations with Peter Varga or on a comprehensive basis, where we analyse the client’s business in more detail and propose tailor-made solutions.

We can provide our accounting clients with comprehensive compliance documents for e-commerce management (e.g. : GDPR, terms and conditions, privacy policy, etc.).

Our law firm Highgate Group specialises in tax litigation (Tax audits and representation in tax proceedings). We represent clients not only in tax audits but also in potential court proceedings. If such a situation arises, our clients have someone to turn to and, thanks to the Highgate Group companies, save on the cost of representation.

Our accounting clients, in addition to professional consultations they can use samples of basic legal documents (e.g.: loan agreement, employment contract, cooperation agreement, termination of employment, resolution of the general meeting, etc.), which are prepared by our law firm Highgate Group. Clients also have access to relevant business information:

• Is it better to buy an apartment on a company or as a private person?
• What are the options for more effective taxation of cryptocurrencies?
• E-shop – watch out for VAT changes thanks to our training.

What do small companies gain by working with us?

For small and “one-person LLCs” we can be attractive mainly because of tax and legal advice. Every entrepreneur is interested in, for example:

• what are the legal options for reducing your tax and levy liability;
• what are the risks associated with, for example, using company property for private use;
• how to get the maximum maternity allowance;
• whether (and to what extent) it is really necessary to address transfer pricing in every related party transaction;
• whether it is better to buy real estate/cryptocurrency/securities in the name of an individual or a legal entity;
• whether it is possible/necessary to have a minimum full-time job in your own company; or
• what are the options for getting out of the company from a legal as well as tax point of view

• the client wants to have an overview of their financial flows, they want to manage a certain agenda in the accounting (e.g. received invoices, or stock management for e-shop);
• the client is not interested in participating in the accounting, he just wants to hand over the documents (by uploading them to the storage in the account provided by Highgate Group);
• The client wants to manage all of its accounting in the accounting software and only requires the Highgate Group to check and correct the posting of accounting cases;
• In the era of digitalization, fast data transfer and automation of individual processes, whether accounting, tax or legal, we strive to keep up with the pace. That is why we strive to provide our clients with a superior service in the area of keeping and accessing their accounts. Therefore, we try to adapt to the needs of the client and set up the functioning of accounting in various forms of cooperation, namely:

Each client receives their own unique online account in which they have access to:

• easy creation of sent invoices based on current legislation with automatic retrieval of partners from the commercial register;
• to track individual payments for sent invoices, linked to automatic matching;
• uploading documents to a personal data repository;
• automatic reminders for unpaid invoices;
• regular invoices with automatic sending to customers;
• bulk payment of cost invoices in batch payment and export of xml file;
• pricing of services and goods;
• logbook records;
• a basic overview of the company’s economic indicators;
• managing the online cash register;
• other interesting functionalities.

Online accounting and its automation also touches on e-shops and the automation setup itself when posting invoices, payment gateways(GoPay, PayPal, Adyen, Stripe and others), bank account movements or theuse of CRM systems and applications. Especially for e-shops (Accounting for e-shop), it is extremely crucial to effectively link the various inputs and outputs.

Successful implementation of these technical and process elements can significantly reduce the cost of bookkeeping.

Double-entry bookkeeping

Double-entry bookkeeping is a legal obligation for every company or cooperative (s.r.o., a.s., …). Almost every country in the world, except for some tax havens (Tax optimization and offshore companies), has developed its own, specific system of financial accounting regulation, which regulates in detail the way in which entrepreneurs have to record their economic activity. Double-entry bookkeeping is the core group within the accounting system.

Due also to different historical developments, there are no uniform rules for double-entry bookkeeping today. This creates a natural space for the creation and dissemination of international accounting standards such as IFRS. However, these are not yet used by small and medium-sized enterprises, which in Europe still need a local accountant to do their accounting.

Like other areas of social or economic life, double-entry bookkeeping is materialized and formalized, which forms the basic skeleton of bookkeeping. It is therefore obvious that double-entry bookkeeping must be based on legislation which aims to harmonise the manner and form of bookkeeping between accounting units. The aim is primarily to obtain a credible and transparent picture of the company so that, for example, the state can control the correct collection of taxes or an investor can assess the economic strength of the company.

Proper and transparent double-entry bookkeeping, for example, increases the value of a company when an investor enters or sells it. It also increases credibility, for example in bank financing. Naturally, these advantages will not be appreciated by a small entrepreneur who uses a trading company only for tax or limited liability reasons.

And it is precisely for the sake of uniformity and accuracy in accounting that we have enacted several economic laws and statutory measures that have significantly guided accounting. The most important of these regulations in Slovakia today is the Accounting Act and the always updated accounting procedures. This is followed by other legislation, such as the Commercial Code or the Income Tax Act, which transform the content of accounting into a more publicly familiar area, such as the payment of taxes.

In general, every Slovak business entity that is also a legal entity is subject to the obligation to keep double-entry accounts. This naturally complicates life especially for small business companies, whose owners do not appreciate this more complex type of accounting by default. Unfortunately, due to different historical developments in accounting, there are no uniform rules for accounting in the world today, and therefore Slovak double-entry bookkeeping cannot be used outside Slovakia. This also means that a cheaper Slovak accountant cannot account according to German rules.

However, natural persons who are entrepreneurs do not have to keep double-entry accounts. They can opt for simple accounting, tax registration or apply flat-rate expenses.

Double-entry bookkeeping is not required even for companies established in the so-called. tax havens. On the other hand, however, with the increasing demand for transparency, there is a growing requirement for these companies to keep at least some accounting records as well (Tax optimisation and offshore companies).

So-called. The Salika kilek introduced significantly lower quality criteria for the audit obligation. As of the 2022 financial year, only those companies that meet at least 2 of the following 3 criteria are subject to audit:

• the total amount of assets exceeded EUR 4 000 000;
• the net turnover exceeds EUR 8 000 000; and
• the average number of employees in one accounting period exceeded 50;

Even if the audit obligation is not appreciated especially by smaller entrepreneurs, it should be noted that the audit of double-entry bookkeeping naturally contributes to the institutionalisation and standardisation of economic reporting. At the end of the day, this improves the overall predictability of financial indicators and adds more confidence to business relationships.

Thus, auditing the double-entry books of companies is generally beneficial for economic growth. In Slovakia, unfortunately, a certain degree of aversion to it has developed, mainly due to the impractical, formalistic and often insensitive and detached from reality approach of some auditors.

By default, we think of a fund as a large institutionalised entity managed by a multinational fund management company. However, funds are now also set up by small entrepreneurs who want to raise money from the public or by private offerings in order to invest and capitalise on it. These are the so-called ‘funds of funds’. Collective investment.

In the process of its legislative development, Slovakia has not emphasised more sophisticated regulation of small investment funds. This deficiency can be seen not only in ossified regulation, but also in the area of taxes and levies. Taxes can be an important element in deciding whether to establish a fund in Slovakia or abroad. This puts Slovakia at a significant disadvantage compared to other EU jurisdictions.

The Czech Republic alone has a favourable tax regime for several types of funds, in addition to a number of regulatory options. Not only does the Slovak Income Tax Act not contain significant tax advantages for funds, to a large extent the tax liability of funds is also affected by the way they are accounted for. In fact, the current accounting procedures still in force for funds require a fund to revalue its assets on an income basis in certain circumstances.

This means that, for some funds, taxation may cause an increase in the fair value of the underlying assets (taxation of funds). Moreover, these accounting practices are relatively unclear and non-transparent. The statistics on the number of small investment funds not accounting according to the administrative rules alone give a clear indication of the regulatory quagmire in which the fund industry finds itself in Slovakia today.

The law on collective investment is largely harmonised by the EU UCITS and AIFM Directives. Therefore, the definition of collective investment, which separates regulated from unregulated structures, is also largely standardised across Member States. Therefore, the guidance and practice of foreign regulators is often a source of information in interpreting this law.

In connection with the Collective Investment Schemes Act, we are addressing regulatory and legal settings in addition to tax and accounting issues. We represent clients before the NBS not only in registration or authorisation proceedings. For more information on collective investment regulation, please refer to these articles and our other outputs:

• Will small Slovak investment funds (AIFs) finally become more flexible?
• Legal, tax and accounting pitfalls of small investment funds;
• The boundary between collective investment and equity investment;

We provide our clients with proper accounting for small funds. This service is mainly for small entrepreneurs in the fund industry (funds for investing in real estate, financial instruments or cryptocurrencies), but also for “startup” hubs through which investors invest in venture capital. As we are the only ones in Slovakia with experience in the legal, tax and accounting aspects of venture capital funds (EuVECA), we are confident that we can provide relevant services in this area.

A mutual fund is just one type of legal form within the range of legal forms of investment funds in Slovakia. It represents a pool of assets and therefore has neither legal nor tax personality. Individual unit-holders hold so-called Unit certificates, which represent a kind of confirmation of a share in the whole of the assets covered by the mutual fund. It is also separately accounted for. Although historically unit trusts have been and are used primarily for conservative funds (especially UCITS), unit trusts can be very nicely structured as part of tax optimization for investments in, for example, cryptocurrencies, securities or real estate (i.e., for AIFs).