Tax identification number

What it means

The DIČ is the ten-digit tax identification number a company receives on registering for income tax. A new company is normally assigned one automatically after the commercial register entry.

It is not the company ID number, which identifies the entity itself, nor the VAT number, which only exists after a separate VAT registration and starts with SK.

A DIČ belongs to a person, not to a business. A sole trader has one DIČ for every trade licence and for income outside the business, and the director of a limited liability company has a personal DIČ distinct from that of the company they represent.

How it works in practice

The DIČ belongs on invoices, in contracts and in correspondence with the authorities. A company that is not a VAT payer has a DIČ but no VAT number, and so may not show tax on an invoice.

Changing the seat or the name feeds into the tax registration, but the number itself stays. It ends only when the company does, or when the tax administration cancels the registration.

A sole trader receives the DIČ from the tax office on registration, which these days the single point of contact usually handles together with the trade licence. When taking on a client we verify the DIČ in the tax administration’s register, since every filing and payment is later recorded under it.

What to watch out for

Mixing up DIČ and VAT number on documents is a common reason a customer’s deduction is refused. It also trips foreign partners who store the DIČ as the VIES number and then cannot validate it.

In electronic filing it is easy to confuse the company’s DIČ with the director’s personal one, especially when the director files both for themselves and the firm. The return then goes in under the wrong taxpayer, the company has formally filed nothing, and the office imposes a penalty for late filing.