1. Employer - registration and obligations
2. Employee - registration and obligations
3. Pension-related rights and obligations

1. Employer - registration and obligations

The Social Insurance Act requires employers to register to the register of employers by submitting an Employer’s Registration Form no later than on the day before they start employing at least one employee.

A company registering with the employers register for the first time either uses a paper form and sends it by post or hands it in in person to the relevant branch of the Social Insurance Agency, or sends the form electronically via the Central Public Administration Portal (www.slovensko.sk).

Together with the Employer’s Registration Form:

• foreign employers attach their certificate of incorporation (an extract from the business register or another register) permitting them to operate, translated into Slovak. Employers providing their own translation must submit it together with a solemn declaration that the content of the certificate in Slovak matches the content of the certificate in the foreign language;
• a power of attorney is submitted – if registration is carried out by an agent and not by the company’s statutory representative.

After registering, employers are assigned a ten-digit employer identification number (IČZ). This number is then specified on all statements and registration forms and is used as an identifying number when they pay insurance contributions.

Once registered, employers must obtain access to the electronic services (e-Service) provided by the Social Insurance Agency. They do this by signing an Electronic Service Utilisation Agreement.  It is possible to log in to the e-Service either using an electronic ID card (when logging in, the system redirects the user to the eID login application) or using a name, password and mobile application (here you need to download the application to your smartphone to generate a unique login code).

If the Social Insurance Agency’s electronic services (e-Services) are unavailable, employers may register or deregister employees by means of provisional employee registration/deregistration via a mobile app, email, fax or text message.

An employer  is obliged to:

• register all employees (using the Registration Form for Individuals) the day before their insurance begins, and in any event by the time they start the job;
• notify a branch of the Social Insurance Agency of any of the following within eight days: the interruption of an employee’s sickness insurance, pension insurance or unemployment insurance;
• submit a statement of insurance contributions and contributions to old-age pension saving schemes, broken down by employee and type of social insurance;
• keep and submit to the Social Insurance Agency records of employees for social insurance purposes (electronic pension insurance records);
• comply with obligations linked to the posting of employees to other EU Member States, EEA States and Switzerland;
• report any employee’s sick leave (lasting for longer than 10 days) and accidents at work that require medical treatment;
• provide the Social Insurance Agency with all information in connection with a declaration of bankruptcy.

Health insurance

Section 24(k) of Act No 580/2004, as amended, requires a health insurance contribution payer who is an employer to notify the health insurance companies at which its employees are insured of the fact that it has become liable to pay contributions. It must do within eight working days of becoming a contribution payer by filling in and submitting a form specified by the Healthcare Surveillance Authority.

Employers are obliged to register with a health insurance company if they have at least one employee who is insured with that company.

The notification contains the employer’s:

• name;
• registered office;
• company registration number;
• bank account number;
• pay day.

If the employer is a natural person, the notification contains his or her:

• given name and surname;
• personal identification number;
• residential address.

The following form must be submitted together with the completed form entitled ‘Notification of the Establishment, Change or Winding-up of an Insurance Contribution Payer’:

• a copy of an official document confirming the establishment and existence of the contribution payer and the validity of the information about this payer – a certificate of incorporation;
• a trade licence, deed of foundation, or trade permit;
• confirmation of the assignment of a registration number;
• other documentation (depending on the insurance company’s needs and requirements).

Payment of health insurance and social security contributions (for the employer)

The employer pays insurance contributions totalling 25.2% of the basis of assessment, broken down as follows:

• 1.4% of the basis of assessment on sickness insurance;
• 14% of the basis of assessment on old-age insurance if the employee does not have a pension saving scheme under a special regulation;
• On old-age pension insurance, if the employee is participating on the second pillar and the old-age pension or the early old-age pension is not paid to them from the pillar amounting to 8,75% and the contribution to old-age pensions saving amounting to 5,25% in 2021 and in 2022 amounting to 8,5% and the contribution to old-age pension savings amounting to 5,5%.
• 3% of the basis of assessment for disability insurance;
• 0.8% of the basis of assessment on personal accident insurance;
• 0.25% of the basis of assessment on guarantee insurance;
• 1% of the basis of assessment for unemployment insurance, if the employer does not pay the premiums to finance the support in time;
• 0.5% of the assessment base, if the employer pays premiums to finance the support during shortened work,
• 0,5% of the assessment base to finance support during shortened work;
• 4.75% of the basis of assessment on the reserve solidarity fund.

Insurance contributions are paid by bank transfer, postal order, or in cash to the Social Insurance Agency for each calendar month in arrears on the employer’s pay day or, if no pay day has been set, on the last day of the calendar month following the month for which the contributions are being paid. The account numbers of the Social Insurance Agency’s branches (where employers are registered) are listed in the ‘insurance contributions’ section.

The Social Insurance Agency imposes penalties on employers who fail to register employees on time or fail to pay their insurance contributions on time.

Health insurance

Insurance contribution payers must draw up statements reporting their contribution prepayments for each month for which they pay contributions. The form, examples and structure of the statements are published on the website of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic.

Health insurance contribution rates:

• 4% of the basis of assessment for an employee (2% if an employee is disabled);
• 14% of the basis of assessment for the self-employed (7% if a self-employed person is disabled);
• 10% of the basis of assessment for the employer (5% if it employs a disabled person).

Detailed procedures and further information will be provided to you by the health insurance company.

2. Employee - registration and obligations

Employees are not obliged to register with the Social Insurance Agency themselves. The employer will do this on their behalf, using the Registration Form for Individuals. Compulsory insurance starts on the day when the legal relationship establishing the right to earnings from dependent work is established. The employer pays the insurance contributions on behalf of the employee.

Immediately after the employee logs in to the register of insured persons, the Social Insurance Agency will make available to the employer the identification number of the legal relationship (INLR) of the employee via the e-Services. If the employer has been granted an exemption from communication with the Social Insurance Agency via the e-Service, the Social Insurance Agency sends the employee's INLR to the employer via the e-mailbox or in writing via the post office. The employer is obliged to state the INLR when communicating with the Social Insurance Agency.

Employee obligations

Employees’ basic obligations mainly require them:

• to keep to any treatment regimen set for them and comply with rules on sick leave;
• to notify the Social Insurance Agency of the end of any sick leave that lasts for more than 10 days;
• when seeking a ‘guarantee benefit’, to submit an application for the benefit within 60 days of the employer’s insolvency or the termination of their employment;
• to undergo a medical examination and check-ups to assess their fitness for work during a period of sick leave if their incapacity has been caused by an accident at work.

Payment of social security contributions (by employees):

Employees pay contributions through their employer, who makes deductions from their salary at 9.4% of the basis of assessment, broken down as follows:

• 1.4% of the basis of assessment for sickness insurance;
• 4% of the basis of assessment for old-age insurance (employees’ contributions are deemed to have been paid even if the employer fails to make these payments on their behalf);
• 3% of the basis of assessment for disability insurance;
• 1% of the basis of assessment for unemployment insurance.

Employees are entitled to the following benefits on the basis of their paid-in contributions:

From sickness insurance:

• sickness benefit;
• carer’s allowance;
• compensatory allowance;
• pregnancy;
• maternity allowance.

From pension insurance:

• old-age pension;
• early retirement pension;
• disability pension;
• widow’s pension;
• widower’s pension;
• orphan’s pension (an employee who is also studying may be entitled to an orphan’s pension).

From unemployment insurance:

• unemployment benefit (only a jobseeker who has met the legal requirements qualifies for this benefit).

From guarantee insurance:

• guarantee insurance benefit.

From personal accident insurance:

• personal accident supplement;
• personal accident annuity;
• lump-sum settlement;
• survivor’s personal accident annuity;
• lump-sum indemnification;
• occupational rehabilitation and rehabilitation allowance;
• retraining and retraining allowance;
• compensation for pain;
• compensation of loss of amenity;
• reimbursement of treatment-related costs;
• reimbursement of funeral-related costs.

Health insurance

The employer calculates and makes prepayments on behalf of the employee.

All information on health insurance levies will be provided to you by your health insurance company or your employer.

3. Pension-related rights and obligations

An insured person is entitled to an old-age pension on reaching the retirement age specified by applicable Slovak legislation, provided that he or she has paid in to pension insurance for at least 15 years (taken as the sum of pension insurance periods in Slovakia, EU countries, and contracting states). Citizens must apply for a pension in writing in the place where they live. The following documents are required when drawing up the application:

• a valid identity card or passport;
• evidence of the completion of education (a certificate of apprenticeship, school-leaving certificate, diploma, or confirmation from a school of the period of study);
• a military service booklet (proof of the duration of military service);
• the birth certificates of the applicant’s children or a decision by a competent authority to grant custody of a child;
• confirmation that the applicant has been entered in the unemployment register;
• documents proving periods of employment and the amount of gross earnings;
• a death certificate (for survivor’s pensions);
• the ‘Screening – Inspection’ form for disability pension applications.

A pension is paid monthly in advance, in cash or to a bank account, on a date set by the Social Insurance Agency.

A disability pension may be granted only on the strength of a report of a medical examination carried out at a Social Insurance Agency medical examiner. The medical examiner determines the degree of disability, expressed as a percentage, in accordance with Annex 4 to the Social Insurance Act, and this decides whether the applicant will be granted a full or partial disability pension.

A disability pension is not converted to an old-age pension when the beneficiary reaches retirement age. A disability pension beneficiary must apply to the Social Insurance Agency in writing for an old-age pension.

Pensioners who are insured in Slovakia have their health insurance paid on their behalf by the state.

Section 11(8)(b) of Act No 580/2004 provides that a pensioner (for this purpose) is a natural person who receives a pension (other than a recipient of a widow’s pension, widower’s pension or orphan’s pension under a special regulation^39b)), a pension stemming from the retirement security afforded to police officers and soldiers under a special regulation,^39c) a pension from abroad, or a pension from another Member State and does not have health insurance in that Member State.

• 1% of the basis of assessment for unemployment insurance, if the employer does not pay the premiums to finance the support in time,
• 0.5% of the assessment base, if the employer pays premiums to finance the support during shortened work,
• 0,5% of the assessment base to finance support during shortened work,

Explanatory laws:

• Act No. 580/2004 on medical insurance, and on modification and complementing of Act No. 95/2002 on insurances.