On 5 October 2024, the new Sugar Tax Act was published in the Slovak Collection of Laws. The initial draft bill underwent a number of changes.
As of 1 January 2025, the final version of the Sugar Tax Act introduces a tax on selected packaged sweetened soft drinks and packaged concentrates containing added sugar or a sweetener. As regards taxation, the separate category of sweetened soft drinks (packaged drinks or packaged concentrates) with a precisely determined caffein content (more than 150 mg/l (caffeine sugar-sweetened soft drinks) has been modified.
The tax rate for caffeine sugar-sweetened soft drinks will be twice as high as for sweetened soft drinks with caffeine content below the above limit, i.e. €0.30/l for packaged soft drinks for direct consumption, and €2.10/l or €8.60/kg for packaged concentrates of these soft drinks.
The act also defines exemptions from taxation for packaged sweetened soft drinks that are initial baby food, follow-on baby food, food for special medical purposes, total food replacement for weight regulation, or packaged concentrates that are a medicine or a nutritional supplement.
The act also includes rules regarding the creation of excessive stock of sweetened soft drinks up to 31 December 2024. Selected entities will be obliged to make an inventory of sweetened soft drinks subject to the new tax at the year end. Excessive stock defined by the act will result in an extraordinary tax liability in the tax return for March 2025, calculated for individual types of sweetened soft drinks at the valid tax rate.
For more information, visit the following website New tax on sweetened soft drinks.
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