Google AdSense in Slovakia: Section 7a, invoices and reporting

Google AdSense income can look straightforward: Google calculates your earnings and transfers the money once you reach the payment threshold. From a Slovak perspective, however, this is a cross-border service. VAT registration, invoicing and recapitulative-statement obligations should therefore be addressed before the first supply.

Important: this article explains only the accounting and VAT treatment of income earned by an individual entrepreneur or a company. Whether operating a website, channel or other content project requires a trade licence or another form of business registration depends on the circumstances and needs a separate assessment.

Short answer: when Google Ireland is your contracting entity, you provide an advertising service to a business in another EU member state. A business that is not ordinarily VAT-registered must register under Section 7a before the first supply, issue invoices without Slovak VAT using the wording “reverse charge”, and report the service in a recapitulative statement.

1. AdSense is a service supplied to another EU country

For most Slovak AdSense accounts, the contracting entity is Google Ireland. The publisher gives Google space to display online advertising, which is a service supplied between two taxable persons.

Under the general B2B rule in Section 15(1) of the Slovak VAT Act, the place of supply moves to the customer’s country—Ireland. The Slovak supplier therefore does not charge Slovak VAT. Google Ireland accounts for the VAT through the reverse-charge mechanism.

Before using the details below, check your AdSense account to confirm that Google Ireland is your actual contracting entity. The entity can differ depending on the country of your payments profile.

2. Section 7a registration is required before the first supply

If you are not already registered for VAT or under Section 7, you must apply for Section 7a VAT registration before making your first qualifying supply to another EU member state.

There is no minimum income threshold. The obligation can therefore arise even when your AdSense income is small. The tax authority assigns a VAT identification number that you use on the invoice and in the recapitulative statement.

Section 7a registration does not, by itself, make you an ordinary Slovak VAT payer. You do not automatically begin charging Slovak VAT on domestic sales, nor do you receive the general right to deduct input VAT available to an ordinary VAT-registered business.

If you are already fully VAT-registered, you do not submit a separate Section 7a application. You must still invoice and report the cross-border service correctly.

3. Google does not request an invoice, but Slovak rules require one

Google normally processes your payment without asking you for an invoice. This does not remove the Slovak supplier’s obligation to create the document and retain it in their accounting records.

The invoice is issued without Slovak VAT and should include, in particular:

• your identification details and VAT number;
• Google Ireland’s identification details;
• a sequential invoice number;
• the issue date and date of supply;
• a description such as “Internet advertising services”;
• the period in which the income arose;
• the amount in euros;
• the wording “reverse charge” or “prenesenie daňovej povinnosti”.

According to Google’s current documentation, the customer details are:

Google Ireland Limited
Gordon House
Barrow Street
Dublin 4
Ireland
VAT number: IE6388047V

The invoice remains in your accounting records. For a payment address outside Ireland, Google does not state a general requirement to send it your Slovak reverse-charge invoice by post.

4. Date of supply and invoice deadline

Monthly AdSense income relates to the calendar month in which the advertising was displayed. For earnings generated in May, 31 May is therefore normally used as the date of supply.

For a service whose place of supply is in another member state under Section 15(1), the invoice must be issued within 15 days after the end of the month in which the service was supplied. The deadline for May is therefore 15 June, not 14 June.

The deadline is not determined by the date on which the payment reaches your bank account. Payment may arrive later or roll over to another month because the payment threshold has not been reached. This does not automatically change the period in which the service was supplied.

5. When the final amount becomes available

This is where many older guides are now misleading. Google states that the previous month’s estimated earnings are normally finalised and posted to the Payments page by around the 3rd of the following month. When the payment threshold is met, payment is usually issued between the 21st and 26th.

The final amount for May should therefore normally be available around 3 June, before the 15 June invoice deadline. Use the finalised amount shown under Payments or Transactions rather than the live estimate on the main dashboard.

For AdSense for YouTube, finalised earnings may be added between the 7th and 12th. This will usually still be before the invoice deadline, but the process should be monitored.

If Google makes an exceptional adjustment later, correct it through an adjusting document and, depending on when the issue is found, an amended or supplementary recapitulative statement.

6. Recapitulative statements under Section 7a

A person registered under Section 7a submits a recapitulative statement for every calendar quarter in which such a service was supplied to another EU member state. The statement is filed electronically within 25 days after the end of the quarter.

For the third quarter—July to September—the standard deadline is 25 October. Under Google’s normal timetable, finalised September earnings should be known around 3 October, before the statement is due.

The statement includes Google Ireland’s VAT number and the total value of the qualifying services for the reporting period. If you did not supply such a service in a particular quarter, a nil recapitulative statement is not filed solely because you hold Section 7a registration.

An ordinary VAT payer may file monthly or, when the statutory conditions are met, quarterly. The value of services alone does not count toward the €50,000 threshold for quarterly reporting; that threshold relates to specified supplies of goods.

7. Why the payment date is not a universal shortcut

Some businesses use the date on which the money reaches the bank as the date of supply. For monthly AdSense income, that approach may move the service into the wrong period and postpone it in the recapitulative statement even though the service was economically supplied earlier.

An internal accounting policy can document a company’s consistent process, but it cannot override the VAT Act. We therefore do not recommend using the payment date merely because it is administratively easier.

A safer workflow is:

1. close the month according to the period in which the earnings arose;
2. retrieve the finalised amount from Payments;
3. issue the invoice by the 15th of the following month;
4. include the service in the correct recapitulative statement;
5. correct any later adjustment with the appropriate document and statement.

Practical conclusion

With AdSense, the main challenge is not the payment itself but setting up the process before the first income. Confirm the contracting entity, arrange Section 7a registration, use finalised earnings, and do not replace the date of supply with the bank-payment date.

If you want to set up the whole process—from registration to regular reporting—see our page about Google AdSense accounting in Slovakia.

Official sources

• Slovak Financial Administration: Section 7a registration
• Slovak Financial Administration: invoice deadlines
• Slovak Financial Administration: recapitulative statements
• Google AdSense: Google Ireland as the contracting entity
• Google AdSense: finalisation and payment timeline

This article is for information only and does not replace an assessment of your specific accounting, tax or registration circumstances.