How to claim financial aid for the purchase of COVID-19 rapid antigen self-tests for workers?
Act on Additional Measures to Stop Spreading and Mitigate, Control, Recover and Eliminate the Consequences of COVID-19 (»ZDUPŠOP«) entered into force on 30 December 2021, allowing for a wide range of measures to help the economy and general population deal with the consequences of COVID-19, including financial aid towards the purchase of rapid antigen self-tests (»HAG« tests) for workers.
Beneficiaries are entitled to claim a maximum amount of EUR 92.50 per individual employee or person required to self-test. In fixing this amount, the legislator took into consideration the statutory period for mandatory self-testing, i.e. the period between 8 November and 2021 and 31 December 2022.
Beneficiaries of this financial aid include all public and private legal entities and natural persons whose employees (or individuals working for the employer on any other basis) are required to self-test in accordance with COVID-19 regulations.
Beneficiaries have until 15 February 2022 to apply for the financial aid. An individual beneficiary does so by submitting a statement to the information portal of the Financial Administration of RS (“FURS”) called eDavki, stating that he is a beneficiary and purchases HAG tests for workers who have to self-test. The beneficiary must indicate in the statement the number of workers covered by the claim and the amount of financial aid being requested. On the statement submission date, the beneficiary must maintain a list of workers or other persons required to self-test and have receipts showing that these tests were purchased before 31 January 2022.
The statement submission date is the relevant date for assessing the eligibility and the amount of financial aid. Thus, according to FURS, the fact that one of the employees is vaccinated after submitting the statement (as a result of which he is no longer required to self-test) does not affect the financial aid calculation, as it is a one-time aid. FURS will disburse financial aid to beneficiaries as a one-off payment by 31 March 2022.
The Act stipulates that the measure will be in force from 8 November 2021 to 31 January 2022, whereby the Government of the Republic of Slovenia may, by way of a Decision, extend this measure by up to five months.
ZDUPŠOP also provides for financial aid audits by the budget inspectorate of the Budget Audit Office of the Republic of Slovenia, and fines for violations.
Authors: Eva Bardutzky, Student and Klavdija Kek, Senior Associate
