Single point of contact

What it means

The single point of contact is the trade licensing department of a district office that takes a trade notification and passes the data on to other institutions at the same time. It is not a separate authority but one counter in front of several registers.

It handles a free trade licence as well as craft and regulated ones, where a qualification has to be proven or a responsible representative appointed. Filing is either on paper at the office or electronic through the portal with a qualified signature.

The concept comes from the EU Services Directive: in every member state the point of single contact is meant to let a business from another state, too, obtain its authorisations in one place. In Slovakia the trade licensing departments play this role and the Trade Licensing Act sets the procedure, so a foreigner who wants to do business here turns to it as well.

How it works in practice

Electronic filing costs less than paper, and a free trade notified electronically carries no administrative fee at all. The trade authorisation certificate arrives in the electronic mailbox and the entry shows up in the trade register straight away.

The office notifies the health insurer that the business has started and takes further applications. Registration with the tax office, though, is now done by the tax office itself from the register entry, so no separate application is filed.

Every change is reported through the same point: a new place of business, an additional business activity, suspension or termination of the trade. For our sole-trader clients we prepare the filing under a power of attorney and make sure a change of address is reported in time, since other authorities also draw their data from the register.

What to watch out for

A trade does not end by itself. Anyone who stops trading but neither suspends nor cancels the authorisation through the single point of contact stays a self-employed person as far as the health insurer is concerned: advances keep running without a single invoice, and the insurer collects the arrears years later.

The point of single contact does not handle everything. A sole trader’s compulsory social insurance does not start with the trade notification but depends on the income in the tax return, and the Social Insurance Agency announces it on its own; anyone assuming the counter took care of this can easily miss the duty to pay contributions from the set date.