Advance invoice (zálohová faktúra) in Slovakia

An advance invoice asks for money before the work is done — and it is the one document in Slovak invoicing that carries no legal weight at all. Knowing that changes what you put on it, what you must issue afterwards, and why your customer cannot deduct a cent of VAT from it.

Updated: Aug 24, 2026

What it is, and what it is not

A zálohová faktúra — also called a preddavková faktúra or a predfaktúra — is a request for payment. The VAT Act does not define it, the Accounting Act does not recognise it, and nothing is booked when you issue one. It exists to tell the customer what to pay, on which account and by when; the documents that matter legally come later, once the money has arrived.

A zálohová faktúra is neither a tax document nor an accounting document. Your customer cannot deduct VAT from it, you owe no tax when you issue it, and it changes nothing in your books until the payment lands. Write “Toto nie je daňový doklad.” (This is not a tax document) on it and half the questions never get asked.

What belongs on an advance invoice

No paragraph prescribes this list — the document is not regulated. It is what the customer’s accountant needs in order to pay you without calling.

Both parties

Your business name, address and IČO, and the same for the customer. Not a legal requirement here, but an accountant will not pay an anonymous request.

The name of the document

“Zálohová faktúra” or “Preddavková faktúra” — never just “Faktúra”, which is what starts the confusion about whether tax can be deducted.

Its own number

From a series of its own, not from the one your issued invoices use. The invoice numbering has to stay continuous, and an advance request that never turns into a supply would leave a hole in it.

What the payment is for

The supply the advance belongs to, so the settlement invoice can later be matched to it.

The amount and the split

The amount requested. A VAT payer may show the tax for information — mark it clearly as information, because the right to deduct arises from the tax document, not from this one.

How to pay

IBAN, variabilný symbol and the due date. This is the practical point of the whole document.

The note that it is not a tax document

“Toto nie je daňový doklad.” One line that prevents your customer from deducting VAT they are not yet entitled to.

The four steps, in order

The advance invoice is the first of them and the only one with no legal effect. Everything the tax office cares about happens in steps 3 and 4.

You issue the advance invoice

A payment request. No tax duty, no accounting entry, no deduction for the customer.

The payment arrives

For a VAT payer this is the moment the tax duty arises — §19(4) of the VAT Act ties it to the day the payment is received, not to the delivery.

You issue the invoice for the received payment

The “faktúra k prijatej platbe” — a real tax document, within 15 days of the payment or by the end of the month it arrived in (§73). This is the document your customer deducts from.

You issue the settlement invoice

The “vyúčtovacia faktúra” after the supply: the whole job, minus the advance that has already been taxed.

What a VAT payer must do once the money lands

Receiving an advance is a taxable event on its own. §19(4) of Act 222/2004 makes the tax duty arise on the day the payment is received, and §73 gives you 15 days from that day to issue the invoice for it, or until the end of the calendar month the payment was received in — the act allows either deadline. The one exception is a short job: if you deliver within those 15 days, the settlement invoice alone is enough and no separate document for the payment is needed.

How the settlement invoice deducts the advance

A job priced at €1,000 plus 23 % VAT, with half paid up front. The figures are the arithmetic, not an opinion.

The price of the job

€1,000 tax base + €230 VAT = €1,230 in total.

The advance received

€615 — half of the price including tax.

Invoice for the received payment

The €615 splits into €500 tax base + €115 VAT. You pay that €115 over in the period the money arrived.

The settlement invoice

Shows the whole supply — €1,000 + €230 — and subtracts the advance already taxed: −€500 base and −€115 VAT.

Left to pay

€615, of which €115 is VAT. The tax on the job is €230 either way; the advance only moved half of it forward in time.

If you are not registered for VAT

It is simpler: no tax duty arises when the advance lands, and there is no invoice for the received payment to issue. You send the advance request, take the money, and once the work is done you issue one ordinary invoice — the accounting document — for the whole supply, noting the amount already paid. Your document still shows no VAT rate and no tax anywhere, exactly as on any other invoice you issue.

Where this goes wrong

Numbering advances in the invoice series

An advance request that is never paid, or never turns into a supply, then leaves a gap in the sequence of issued invoices — and that sequence being unbroken is what makes it auditable.

Forgetting the invoice for the received payment

The tax was due for the period the money arrived in, whether or not a document was issued. The missing paperwork does not delay the tax; it only means it was not declared.

The customer deducting from the advance invoice

They cannot: the right to deduct hangs on the tax document. A customer who tries it has the deduction disallowed, and it is your document that caused it.

Not deducting the advance on the settlement invoice

Then the same supply is taxed twice — once on the payment and again in full at the end — and the customer is billed for money they have already sent.

Calling it a “Faktúra”

The name is what tells everyone downstream which of the two documents they are holding. An advance request labelled as an invoice is the reason all of the above happens.

Frequently asked questions

This information is general in nature and does not replace tax or legal advice. Thresholds and duties change — check your own situation with an accountant.