Limits for cash payments from 1.1.2026
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December 8, 2025
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From 1 January 2026, we are returning to a stricter cash payment regime. When approving the Act on Sales Registration (3 December 2025), Parliament also approved an amendment to the Act on Restrictions on Cash Payments. The division of limits is being reintroduced - 5 000 € for any cash payments (between entrepreneurs, between entrepreneur and state, and between entrepreneur and consumer) and 15 000 € for cash payments between individuals. At the same time, the exception linked to an emergency situation. The law will only have exceptions for exceptionally a emergency condition.
The course of the situation
Cash restrictions in Slovakia have been in place since 2013. However, in practice they have not worked in recent years; the law included an exception for periods of crisis, which included the pandemic from March 2020 and later the emergency situation related to the war in Ukraine. An attempt in 2022 to abolish the exception failed, and instead the limit was formally unified to €15,000 from 1 July 2023. Since the emergency situation was still ongoing, the new rule was not actually implemented in practice. It is currently being return to "5,000/15,000"„ and the exclusion of emergency situations from exceptions.
What does the legislator intend?
The recital highlights the effort limit uncontrollable cash flows outside of eKasa, especially fictitious income and expense documents or "creative accounting" at the end of the year. The stricter regime is intended to give the financial administration a better overview of money movements and facilitate evidence in disputes (for example, in loans or leases between individuals).
Criticism of entrepreneurs
Slovak Entrepreneurs Association points out several problems. First, the change came suddenly without the standard expert discussion and impact analysis. Second, the limit amount does not reflect inflation recent years – the amount of €5,000 has a different purchasing power in 2025 than in 2019. Finally, this is another example gold plating: EU introduces Europe-wide limit 10 000 € until July 2027, Slovakia is preventing earlier and stricter rules. ZPS adds that cash is not only used by those who want to avoid taxes. In some sectors, it increases flexibility and helps prevent unpaid debts. At the same time, it reminds us of the paradox that the state introduced last year financial transaction tax, which encourages cash, and now tries to suppress cash.
What does this mean for practice from January 1, 2026?
For both entrepreneurs and ordinary people, this means resetting internal rules and processes:
– to follow limit €5,000 for all cash payments
– in transactions among non-entrepreneurs to respect limit €15,000,
– for higher amounts use cashless channels (transfers, payment services).
The purpose of the adjustment is to actually limit cash in larger transactions, so in practice it is worth considering that purposeful circumvention (e.g. breaking down a single transaction into multiple cash payments related to the same legal act) may be assessed as problematic in light of the aim of the law.