Both an employee and a self-employed person can reduce their tax in several ways: the basic personal allowance and the allowance for a spouse, contributions to the third pillar, the child tax bonus and the bonus on mortgage interest. A self-employed person also chooses between flat-rate and actual expenses, and deducts the social and health insurance contributions paid. 2026 brought new formulas and new tax rates. We went through the law and the tax authority’s methodological guidelines, and for every statement we give the wording it is based on.
A tax return has two layers of relief, and it is worth not mixing them upNon-taxable parts reduce the tax base, i.e. the amount from which the tax is calculated – they save you the tax rate applied to the deducted amount, so at 19% that is 19 cents from every euro. Tax bonuses reduce the tax already calculated, euro for euro, and if the tax is lower than the bonus, the state pays you the difference.
The second important point: non-taxable parts and the child bonus are tied only to active income from employment and from business. Anyone with only rental income, income from selling a property, or capital income cannot claim anything from them. Anyone with both employment and self-employment deducts the non-taxable parts from their salary first, and only the remainder from the self-employment income.
| Relief | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Non-taxable part for the taxpayer (annual) | 5 966,73 € | 5 753,79 € |
| Full amount only up to this tax base | 26 083,13 € | 25 426,27 € |
| Non-taxable part for a spouse (annual) | 5 455,30 € | 5 260,61 € |
| Third pillar contributions | up to a maximum of €180 | up to a maximum of €180 |
| Tax bonus for a child under 15 (monthly) | 100 € | 100 € |
| Tax bonus for a child aged 15 to 18 (monthly) | 50 € | 50 € |
| Tax bonus on mortgage interest (annual) | up to €1,200 (old contracts €400) | up to €1,200 (old contracts €400) |
| Self-employed flat-rate expenses | 60%, up to a maximum of €20,000 + contributions | 60%, up to a maximum of €20,000 + contributions |
This is the basic relief that almost everyone has. For 2026 it is €5,966.73, if your tax base does not exceed €26,083.13. At a higher tax base the amount is reduced, and here is the new part: above this threshold, the non-taxable part is €14,661.11 minus a third of the tax base. Until 2025 a quarter was deducted. It falls to zero at a tax base of €43,983.32; in 2025 this was only at €48,441.43. Anyone earning around €3,000 a month gross will feel this more than before.
Watch out for a pension. Anyone who was, on 1 January 2026, a recipient of an old-age, early old-age or service pension does not claim the non-taxable part for themselves, or only the difference if their annual pension including the thirteenth pension is lower than €5,966.73. Anyone who retired during the year gets the full amount for the whole year.
The most commonly overlooked relief, because people think being married is enough. It is not. The spouse must live with you in the household and, for at least part of the year, either care for a child under three (under six for an unfavourable health condition), receive a care allowance, be registered with the labour office, or have a disability. Anyone simply at home without one of these reasons does not create an entitlement.
The amount depends on two incomes at once. If your tax base is up to €43,983.32, it is €5,455.30 minus the spouse’s own income. Above this threshold, it is €20,116.40 minus a third of your tax base minus the spouse’s income; until 2025 the threshold was €48,441.43 and a quarter was deducted.
What counts as a spouse’s own income is stated explicitly in the law, and it is surprising: the parental allowance and child benefit are state social benefits and do not count, but maternity benefit, sickness benefit, unemployment support and a pension all count. Maternity benefit from the Social Insurance Agency can therefore often wipe out the entitlement entirely. If the conditions applied for only part of the year, you claim a twelfth for each month at the start of which they were met.
A small but reliable relief. Contributions you paid yourself into supplementary pension savings or a pan-European personal pension product are deducted from the tax base, up to a maximum of €180 a year. At a 19% rate that is a saving of €34.20. Employer contributions do not count, only your own.
The catch is in old contracts. the contract must have been concluded after 31 December 2013 or must have had its benefit plan cancelled, and at the same time you must not have any other old contract without this change. Anyone who withdraws the money early must add the amounts claimed back into the tax base within three years.
Since 2025, new, stricter rules have applied, and they did not change in 2026. For a child under 15 the bonus is €100 a month, from 15 to 18 it is €50 a month, and for a child over 18 there is nothing, even if they are still studying. That is a maximum of €1,200 a year for a younger child.
The bonus has two caps. The first depends on the amount of your tax base: for one child, at most 29% of the tax base, for two 36%, for three 43%, for four 50%, for five 57% and for six or more 64%. A parent on a low salary may therefore not receive the full €1,200, but in the tax return they can add the other parent’s tax base to their own. The employer’s annual reconciliation cannot do this, but the tax return can.
The second cap is for higher incomes. If your tax base for 2026 exceeds €27,432, the bonus for each child is reduced by one tenth of the difference. At a tax base of €33,432 the difference is €6,000, a tenth is €600, so of the annual €1,200 per child, €600 remains; at a tax base above €39,432 the bonus for the younger child is zero. Anyone with more than a tenth of their income from abroad gets no bonus at all.
This is a bonus for young people who took out a loan for their own housing. when you applied for the loan you were between 18 and 35 years old, the loan is for a single Slovak property in which you genuinely live, and your average monthly income in the year before signing the contract did not exceed 1.6 times the average wage, which for a 2026 contract means €2,592. Income is checked only once, at signing; a later pay rise does not cancel the entitlement.
The amount depends on the date of the contract. For contracts concluded from 1 January 2024, it is half of the interest paid, up to a maximum of €1,200 a year; for older contracts, half of the interest still applies, up to a maximum of €400 a year. The entitlement lasts five years from the month interest on the loan started accruing, with the first and last year calculated proportionally by month.
Good news to finish with: if your tax after the child bonus is lower than the interest bonus, the tax office will pay you the difference as an overpayment. You need a confirmation from the bank about the interest paid; the bank sends it at the start of the year.
This is the biggest decision in a self-employed person’s tax return, and it is made afresh every year. Flat-rate expenses are 60% of income, up to a maximum of €20,000 a year, and only someone who is not a VAT payer for the whole year may use it. The €20,000 cap is reached at an income of €33,333; above this amount the flat rate falls as a percentage, and actual expenses start to become worthwhile.
The most common mistake: thinking the flat rate covers everything. It does not. On top of the flat rate you also deduct the Social and health insurance contributions you actually paid during the year, including any shortfall from the annual health insurance reconciliation if you paid it in this year. With actual expenses the contributions are a tax expense in the same way, but there they are part of the records like any other expense.
| Insurance | Rate | Minimum per month |
|---|---|---|
| Social Insurance Agency (sickness, old-age, disability, reserve fund) | 33,15 % | €303.11 (from July 2026 the micro-contribution is €131.34) |
| Health insurance | 16% (severely disabled 8%) | €121.92 (severely disabled €60.96) |
Anyone using actual expenses does not have to keep accounts. Tax records are enough: income and expenses in chronological order with supporting documents, assets, inventory, receivables and liabilities. Under the flat rate, you keep only income, inventory and receivables. And the decision is binding: once the deadline for filing the return has passed, the method of expenses for that year can no longer be changed, not even by a supplementary return.
An employee’s share of contributions is deducted from gross salary – 14.4% in total in 2026 – and tax is calculated only on the remainder. The employer does this automatically; you will find it in the income statement in the tax return.
A loss from self-employment is deducted over the following five years – a small entrepreneur may deduct all of it, others no more than half of the tax base. No loss arises when using flat-rate expenses.
€500 a year is exempt from rental income and occasional income, only the amount above that is taxed. However, the non-taxable part does not apply to this income.
It does not reduce your tax, but you decide where 2% of it goes – volunteers with confirmation of 40 hours give 3%. It is calculated from the tax after deducting bonuses, and the minimum is €3.
For self-employed individuals there are also special deductions: for research and development, for investment in production technology and, from 2026, also for supporting sports organisations. This does not apply to an ordinary self-employed person, but if you manufacture or develop something, it is worth asking about.
Once the deadline passes, the decision cannot be changed. Those with income above €33,333, or large purchases, an expensive car or employees, often come out better with actual expenses. Those with low costs, with the flat rate. Contributions are payable on top in both cases.
Work out at the start of which months the child was under three years old, or the wife was registered with the labour office. Maternity and sickness benefits count as her own income, the parental allowance does not.
If your salary is not enough for the full bonus, in the tax return you add the other parent’s tax base. The employer’s annual reconciliation cannot do this. Above a tax base of €27,432 the bonus is reduced regardless of where you claim it.
From the bank about interest, from the supplementary pension company about contributions, from the Social and health insurance companies about contributions paid, marriage certificate and birth certificates. The tax office can request them going back five years.
Tell us about your income, how many children you have and whether you are repaying a mortgage. We will work out both options and tell you which comes out better – with no obligation.
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