Support of Business Innovation in the Form of Tax Benefits for R&D of Entrepreneurs in Slovakia

Abstract

Since 2015, the tax advantage of the R&D of entrepreneurs in Slovakia has been in the form of indirect support of innovation and creativity in companies. It could be a competitive advantage for the entrepreneurs who apply them. They are important on the revenue level, e.g. in the creation of a new product and on the cost level, in streamlining the conduct of business. This article aims to analyze the application of super-deduction in tax due to R&D carried out by en­trepreneurs in Slovakia from the first year and focuses on R&D in the Slovak Republic from 2015 to 2018. Theoretical interpretations of R&D in legislative standards at transnational and national levels, different tax policies on innovation and gross domestic spending are defined at the outset. The theoretical background is important from the point of view of understanding the R&D in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, where the following quantitative research is carried out. As the main method of investigation, we used the quantitative analysis and comparison that we use to compare the increasing number of companies that used the R&D cost (expenditure) deduction in the context of legal form in the period considered for the years 2015 to 2018 and the amounts of applied super-deduction for individual types of companies. The performed quantitative analy­sis shows a weak use of the provided income tax relief in the form of super-deduction of costs in connection with the implementation of R&D by companies in Slovakia, despite the year-on-year growing trend. Due to the relative representation of individual legal forms of entities in Slovakia, according to our research, Limited Liability Companies apply a super-deduction of R&D costs annually in the period under review. The number of these entities is constantly growing, as is the amount of the super-deduction applied. Based on the findings, we can state that the increased per­centage deduction rate had a positive effect on the motivation of entrepreneurs to apply incentives.