Background information

Within the so-called of the anti-inflation package, which is supposed to help families with children, the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 22 June 2022 approved Act No. 232/2022 Coll. on financing a child's free time. This law contains a number of measures, of which direct financial payments for increasing child allowances and reducing taxes for parents with children in the form of an increased tax bonus can be mentioned in particular. The measures are implemented in the form of an amendment to Act 600/2003 Coll. on child allowance and amendments to Act 595/2003 Coll. on income tax.

Moreover, the Government Regulation No. 166/2022 amending the Government Regulation No. 102/2020, see related case introducing an ad hoc increase of child allowance .

Content of measure

Child allowance is provided for each child in the same amount. As of 1 July 2022 the child allowance increased from €25.88 per month to €30 per month and from 1 January 2023 increases to €50 per month. An ad-hoc increase refers to the amount of additional €74.12 paid in May 2022 to regular child allowance (€25.88).

Until now, the amount of the tax bonus (tax reduction) per child was €47.14 per month for children under 6 years of age, €43.60 for children between 6 and 15 years of age and €23.57 for children over 15 years of age. From 1 July 2022, the amount of the tax bonus for a child under the age of 15 increases to €70 per month, and for those aged 15 and over it increases to €40 per month. From 1 January 2023, it is €100 per month per child under the age of 15 and €50 per child over the age of 15. However, limits are set for the amounts of the tax bonus - from the tax base, it is a maximum of 20% for one child to a maximum of 55% for six or more children. The limit applies mainly to low earnings. However, it should be noted that previously, for low annual earnings (up to 6 times the minimum monthly wage), the tax bonus was not provided at all.

Use of measure

In 2022, from July to December, spending on child allowance is expected to increase by €22.999 million. However, in the following years, the expenses will be significantly higher - an increase in 2023 by €275.169 million, in 2024 by €73.089 million and in 2025 by €265.104 million. (In total, these are allowances for 1.1 million children). The estimated cost of increasing the tax bonus per child is compared to the previous state: in 2022 it is €142.704 million, in 2023 it is €543.866 million, in 2024 it is €506.376 million and in 2025 the increase amounts to €495.182 million.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Parents in employment Single parents in employment	Does not apply to businesses	Parents Single parents

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Social partners were not involved in the preparation of the law. The draft law was not the subject of an interdepartmental comment procedure.

Views and reactions

Social partners were not involved in the preparation of the law. The draft law was not the subject of an interdepartmental comment procedure.

Sources

• 18 May 2022: Nariadenie vlády č. 166/2022 (Government Regulation No. 166/2022) (www.slov-lex.sk)
• 20 May 2022: Nariadenie vlády č. 102/2020 v znení neskorších predpisov (Government Regulation No. 102/2020 as amended) (www.slov-lex.sk)
• 01 July 2022: Zákon 232/2022 Z.z. o financovaní voľného času dieťaťa (Act No. 232/2022 Coll. on Financing free-time activities of the child) (www.slov-lex.sk)
• 01 July 2022: Zákon 600/2003 Z.z. o prídavku na dieťa (Act No. 600/2003 Coll. on Child Allowance) (www.slov-lex.sk)
• 01 July 2022: Zákon 595/2003 o dani z príjmov (Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income Tax) (www.slov-lex.sk)