The Czech tax year is the calendar year. Your tax return puts all your income in five sections (paragraphs), from the Czech Republic and abroad. This guide explains what goes where. It is a simplified overview, not tax advice: the rules change often and the details matter.
Tax rates
Income tax is 15% of your tax base up to 1,762,812 CZK (2026), and 23% on the part above it. The tax base is the total of all five sections. Tax credits and deductions then lower the result: see tax residency and tax benefits.
§ 6 Employment
Salary from a Czech or a foreign employer. With only a Czech salary you do not have to file: your employer settles your tax and gives you an annual overview. That overview is not a tax return, though. Foreign tax offices often do not accept it as proof that you paid tax here, and without a return you may miss tax benefits. With other income above 20,000 CZK a year next to your salary, you must file yourself.
A salary from abroad also goes in § 6 if you are tax resident here that year, together with the tax already deducted abroad. The double tax agreement (DTA) makes sure you do not pay twice. Many people leave out a foreign job "because the tax was already deducted". Technically that is wrong, and whether it matters depends on the details.
§ 7 Self-employment
Income from a trade license (živnostenský list), other freelance professions, and in most cases Airbnb. Most of our clients use the 60/40 method: 60% of your revenue counts as costs, and you pay tax, social security and health insurance on the other 40%. For revenue between about 1 and 2 million CZK, these three together come to about 13 to 14% of your revenue, before tax benefits.
The flat-tax method (paušální daň) is possible up to 2,000,000 CZK revenue: one monthly payment of 9,162 CZK in band 1 covers everything. Which method is best depends on your situation, and the wrong choice can easily cost tens of thousands of CZK. See the three tax methods.
§ 8 Capital income
Not what most people call capital gains. § 8 is income from capital: interest, dividends and profit shares, mainly from abroad. Czech bank interest and Czech dividends are usually taxed at the source already. Profits from selling shares, property or crypto do not go here, but in § 10.
§ 9 Rental income
Long-term rent of a flat, house or other property. Only the rent itself counts, not utilities or deposits. You deduct either your real costs or a flat 30%. Rent from property abroad also goes in your Czech return; the DTA usually gives the taxing right to the country where the property is, and then decides how double tax is avoided.
Airbnb and similar short-term rentals do not belong here. They usually go in § 7, you need a trade license for them, and a VAT-light registration because of the platform's commission.
§ 10 Other income
One-off income that does not fit elsewhere, and profits from selling things. Several types are tax-free:
- Shares and other securities: tax-free if your total sales are up to 100,000 CZK a year, or if you held them for more than 3 years. Crypto follows similar rules from 2025. A share in a company (s.r.o.) is tax-free after 5 years.
- Selling a property: tax-free if it was your home for at least 2 years, or after 10 years in other cases (5 years for property bought before 2021), or if you use the money for your own housing. Not when the property belongs to your business.
- Occasional income: tax-free up to 50,000 CZK a year.
- Prizes: tax-free up to 10,000 CZK from competitions, and up to 1,000,000 CZK from lotteries.
- Pensions: tax-free up to 806,400 CZK a year. Above that, you declare them.
- Inheritance and gifts from family: no income tax. Above 5 million CZK you must report them to the tax office.
Since 2025, the holding-period exemption for securities, company shares and crypto is capped at 40 million CZK of income a year.
Profits from a (foreign) company usually go in § 10 when they are one-off, but not always. When the company works like self-employment, for example a single-member US LLC, the profits belong in § 7.
VAT
VAT is separate from your income tax return, but it raises questions every year. You must register for full VAT when your revenue from Czech sources goes above 2,000,000 CZK in a calendar year, or 2,536,500 CZK within 12 months. Invoicing companies in other EU countries needs a VAT-light registration; invoicing outside the EU needs no VAT registration. See VAT registration for a trade license.
