The data box (datová schránka) is the official electronic mailbox of the Czech authorities. The tax office, social security, your health insurer and other offices send you their letters there instead of by post. It is not email: you log in on a special website or app.
Every trade license holder has one
Since 2023, every entrepreneur with an IČO gets a data box automatically, for their business. The login details are sent by post to the address the authorities have on file, and many foreigners never receive them. You can check whether you have one at any CzechPOINT, or ask someone with a data box to search for yours.
The box starts working the first time you log in, or automatically 15 days after the login details were issued, even if you never received them. From then on, a message counts as delivered 10 days after it arrives, whether you read it or not.
You can also have a second data box as a private person (fyzická osoba), next to the one for your business (podnikající fyzická osoba). Make sure you use the right one.
Getting access
- At CzechPOINT: bring your passport and ask for new login details. They can be sent to your email straight away.
- Online: log in with a Czech electronic identity (Identita občana), for example your bank identity or the Mobilní klíč eGovernmentu.
Lost your password, or has it expired? The same two ways give you access again.
Set these up right away
- Notifications by email: otherwise you never know when something arrives.
- A second user, for example your accountant. If you lose access, someone else still has it.
- Keep your messages: they are deleted 90 days after delivery, without warning. Download the ones you need, or order a data safe (datový trezor), from about 360 CZK a year for up to 50 messages.
Your payment overviews: not always in the data box
For your income tax return we need an overview of what you paid to social security and your health insurer during the year. These overviews often do not arrive in your data box anymore:
- Social security: you find your payments in the ePortál ČSSZ, the online portal of social security. You log in with a Czech electronic identity (Identita občana).
- Health insurers: it differs per insurer. Some use their own online portal, some send the overview by post or to your data box.
Your data box stays important for official letters, such as decisions, payment requests and fines.
Official information (in Czech): datovka.gov.cz/info.
