Slovenia gives a foreign company a straightforward contractor set-up: the usual vehicle is the samostojni podjetnik (s.p.), a registered sole trader, often in its flat-rate form, the normirani s.p., which since 2026 pays a final 20% tax on a base of 20% of revenue up to €60,000, or 4% of turnover. Invoices go out in euros, the currency since 2007, and carry no Slovenian VAT for a business client abroad. The Employment Relationships Act is less relaxed about substance: if the work has the elements of employment, a civil-law contract is not allowed for it.
s.p., normirani s.p. or d.o.o.
| Form | Income or profit tax (2026) | Contributions (2026) | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normirani s.p. (flat-rate expenses) | Final 20% on 20% of revenue up to €60,000, plus 100% of revenue above it; 35% on a base above €72,000 | At least €651.04 a month (full-time) | Revenue up to €120,000 with few real costs |
| Ordinary s.p. (actual expenses) | Profit taxed with other income at 16–50% | On a profit-based base, at least €1,521.62 a month | High real costs, or revenue above the flat-rate limits |
| Part-time s.p. (popoldanski) | Normed expenses of 80% up to €12,500, 40% up to €30,000, 0% above | Flat €113.01 a month | A contractor employed elsewhere, revenue up to €50,000 on flat rate |
| d.o.o. (limited company) | 22% corporate tax (2024–2028), then 25% on dividends | Depend on how the owner is paid | Contractors who hire others or keep profit in a company |
Sources: flat-rate rules from spot.gov.si (checked 2026-09-29); entry limits from mladipodjetnik.si (checked 2026-09-29); contributions from mladipodjetnik.si (checked 2026-09-29); income tax, corporate tax and dividend rates from PwC Tax Summaries (individual, corporate, reviewed 2026-07-15).
Registering an s.p. is free and needs no capital (spot.gov.si, checked 2026-09-29); a d.o.o. needs at least €7,500 of share capital (spot.gov.si, checked 2026-09-29). With a d.o.o. you contract B2B with the company, and it must hold the rights to what its people write (see IP below).
Income tax and contributions
The normirani s.p. The ZPZR law reshaped the regime from 1 January 2026. For a full-time s.p., 80% of revenue up to €60,000 counts as expenses and nothing above that; the base is taxed at 20% up to €72,000 and 35% beyond, as a final tax with no reliefs (spot.gov.si, checked 2026-09-29). Tax is 4% of revenue at €60,000, 12% at €120,000. The regime is open up to €120,000 of revenue for a full-time s.p. and €50,000 for a part-time one, a trader leaves it when the two-year average passes those limits, and re-entry is barred for five tax years (mladipodjetnik.si, checked 2026-09-29).
A further change is pending. Parliament adopted the Act on Intervention Measures for the Development of Slovenia (ZIURS) on 11 May 2026, which would lower contributions for the lowest-earning self-employed and raise the revenue limits for normiranci (rtvslo.si, checked 2026-09-29). It takes effect only after publication in the Official Gazette (ozs.si, checked 2026-09-29), and a referendum signature drive runs until 5 October 2026 (rtvslo.si, checked 2026-09-29).
An ordinary s.p. Profit is revenue less actual expenses and joins the owner’s annual income tax base, taxed in 2026 at 16% up to €9,721.43, then 26%, 33%, 39%, and 50% above €82,346.23 (PwC Tax Summaries, reviewed 2026-07-15).
Contributions. A full-time s.p. pays pension, health, parental, unemployment and long-term care contributions on a base of at least €1,521.62 a month, 60% of the 2025 average wage of €2,536.03. That comes to €651.04 a month from March 2026, with reductions in the first two years for first-time registrants; a part-time s.p. pays a flat €113.01 from April 2026 (mladipodjetnik.si, checked 2026-09-29). The maximum base is 3.5 times the average wage (zvezarfr.si, checked 2026-09-29).
VAT and e-invoicing
VAT registration becomes mandatory above €60,000 of annual turnover in Slovenia (fu.gov.si, checked 2026-09-29), and the standard rate is 22% (spot.gov.si, checked 2026-09-29). For B2B services to a business in another EU state, the customer accounts for the VAT. A contractor below the threshold must still request an SI VAT identification number before performing such a service (fu.gov.si, checked 2026-09-29), and the invoice carries the note “obrnjena davčna obveznost” (VAT Act, Art. 82; zakonodaja.com, checked 2026-09-29).
Structured e-invoices become mandatory for domestic B2B transactions from 1 January 2028, under an act adopted on 23 October 2025 (BDO, checked 2026-09-29). Invoices to a foreign client are outside it.
Disguised employment under the Employment Relationships Act
The Employment Relationships Act (ZDR-1) defines employment by its content: the worker voluntarily joins the employer’s organised work process and performs work for pay, personally and continuously, under the employer’s instructions and control (Art. 4; mladipodjetnik.si, checked 2026-09-29). Three provisions follow from it:
- Art. 13(2): where those elements exist, the work may not be performed under a civil-law contract, except where a law allows it.
- Art. 18: in a dispute, an employment relationship is presumed to exist if the elements are present (same source); the labour inspectorate can also order the employer to conclude an employment contract.
- Art. 217: an employer is fined €3,000 to €20,000 when someone works for it on a civil-law contract contrary to Art. 13(2), and a small employer €1,500 to €8,000 (zakonodaja.com, checked 2026-09-29).
An s.p. billing one client for full-time work on the client’s schedule, tools and instructions is the pattern these rules describe. A foreign client found to be an employer also has to consider whether the work creates a permanent establishment. See contractor misclassification.
Multi-client, project-scoped work on the contractor’s own schedule and equipment is low-risk. Exclusive, continuous work inside your team is where the risk concentrates.
Contract and IP
- A written services contract with the s.p.’s or company’s registered details and tax number, the scope and deliverables, a rate in euros or another stated currency, and payment terms.
- VAT details for EU clients: the contractor’s SI VAT number and reverse-charge invoicing.
- Independence markers: the contractor’s own schedule, tools and right to work for other clients; no attendance control or holiday approval.
- A written transfer of economic rights. Slovenian law lets an author transfer individual economic rights, limited or not in content, territory and time (ZASP Art. 73), but not copyright as a whole or moral rights (Art. 79), and the transfer must be in writing (Art. 80; zakonodaja.com, checked 2026-09-29). For a computer program created under an author’s contract for commissioned work, the economic rights are presumed to pass to the client exclusively and without limitation, unless the contract says otherwise (Art. 112; zakonodaja.com, checked 2026-09-29). Do not rely on the presumption: a services contract with an s.p. may not be read as an author’s contract, and designs or texts fall outside Art. 112. Write the transfer out, exclusive and unlimited, with the right to modify and sublicense.
- With a d.o.o., check the chain. Art. 112 gives the employer the rights in programs its employees write in the course of their duties. If the company uses subcontractors, it needs written transfers from them before it can pass rights to you.
Taxes and paperwork on the client’s side
A foreign client pays gross and withholds nothing. EU clients self-account for VAT under reverse charge and keep a VIES check of the contractor’s SI number. US payers collect a W-8BEN (W-8BEN-E from a d.o.o.) and file no 1099: personal service income is sourced where the work is done (irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29). The US–Slovenia tax convention was signed in Ljubljana on 21 June 1999 and entered into force on 22 June 2001 (state.gov, checked 2026-09-29). Under Article 14, income from independent services is taxed only in the contractor’s country of residence unless they have a fixed base regularly available in the other country (irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29); for work done in Slovenia that changes nothing for the payer.
How to pay contractors in Slovenia
Most payments are euro transfers over SEPA to the contractor’s Slovenian IBAN, sent from your bank, a transfer service such as Wise, or a payout platform. Euro-area banks have had to receive instant transfers since 9 January 2025 and send them since 9 October 2025 (ECB, checked 2026-09-29). A USD wire still works, but the contractor’s bank charges to receive it: NLB takes 0.10%, at least €11.80, against €0.13 for a euro credit (NLB tariff, checked 2026-09-29). Rails, fees, what breaks and a ranked list of platforms are on our page how to pay contractors in Slovenia.
Contractor of Record in Slovenia
For a few s.p. contractors who work for several clients, a direct services contract is usually enough. A Contractor of Record makes sense for the other cases: a full-time engagement with a single client, which Art. 13(2) of ZDR-1 does not allow on a civil contract if the elements of employment are present, or a team whose contracts, VAT numbers and rights transfers have to stay consistent. 4dev acts as Contractor of Record — the contracting party for each contractor — which reduces reclassification risk. Other providers also sign with the contractor as the counterparty; read the liability clause in the COR contract, not the product name. Where the role is a job in substance, hire through an EOR instead. Compare providers in our COR rating.