Slovakia has taxed high-sugar and high-salt foods at 23% VAT since 1 January 2026

What changed in detail

Since 1 January 2026, Slovak laws č. 261/2025 Z. z. and č. 385/2025 Z. z., amending the VAT Act, have been in effect. One of the changes updates Annex 7, point 1 of the VAT Act, moving a range of foods with high sugar or salt content — including sweetened non-alcoholic beverages — out of the 19% reduced VAT rate and into the 23% standard rate. Beverages without added sugar or sweeteners, and packaged drinking water, remain at 19%. The Finančné riaditeľstvo (Financial Directorate of the Slovak Republic) published guidance 1/DPH/2026/IM on 16 February 2026, with a supporting schema, to help VAT payers apply the correct rate product by product.

What it means

This has been the position for the whole of 2026 to date, not a change taking effect now — any Slovak rate table still applying 19% to sweetened beverages or high-sugar/high-salt foods has been wrong since 1 January. The test to apply product by product is sugar/salt content and added-sweetener status under the Annex 7 criteria, not the food category as a whole, since plain water and unsweetened drinks sitting in the same aisle stay at 19%.