The measures are designed to relieve pressure on businesses adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and also to limit the need for public offices to open during the state of emergency period. Photo: CG / Brno Daily.
Brno / Czech Rep., Mar 16 (BD) – The Czech Ministry of Finance has announced a range of measures designed to relieve pressure on businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a national quarantine coming into force across the Czech Republic. The measures mostly concern obligations related to the upcoming deadline for individual and corporate tax returns, and should facilitate much restricted opening hours for the public offices that deal with these matters.
The measures coming into force today include:
- A general waiver of fines for late submission of personal and corporate income tax returns and late payment of outstanding tax payable until 1 July 2020. All taxpayers (individuals and business owners) will automatically be permitted to file their income tax returns and pay outstanding tax without penalty until three months later, without having to prove reasons related to coronavirus. The main objective is to prevent the concentration of clients at tax or post offices.
- A waiver of penalties for late tax claims in all cases where the taxpayer individually applies for remission of interest for late payment or for postponing or rescheduling of the tax for reasons in any way related to coronavirus. For example, this may be due to illness or quarantine of accountants or other key employees whose absence made it impossible to fulfill tax obligations. This measure applies to all taxes administered by bodies under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance, and to all taxpayers (individuals and business owners).
- General waiver of fines of over CZK 1,000 for the late submission of monthly control reports, incurred between March 1st and July 31st 2020.
- The Directorate General for Finance will be instructed to individually waive fines for failure to submit monthly control reports for the period from March 1st to July 31st if for reasons of coronavirus.
- A general waiver of administrative fees for filing an application for delay or rescheduling of tax; of the amount squeezed, and the application for remission of a fine for failure to submit a control report for applications submitted by July 31st.
- It is not legally possible to postpone the start of the third and fourth wave of electronic sales records (EET) effective from May 1st, but the Financial and Customs Administration will not enforce or inspect EET for the duration of a three month “tolerance period” from May 1st, and will fulfill only an advisory function. Businesses, whether or not they are directly affected by coronavirus, will not be sanctioned during this period if they have not been able to prepare in time for registration.
- From March 16th, businesses will be able to apply for special zero-interest loans from the Czech and Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank, in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Small and medium sized companies will be able to access loans of between CZK 500,000 and CZK 15 million in order to pay employees’ salaries, utilities overheads, or rental payments, to finance supplies, to pay supplier-customer invoices, and so on, if they can produce evidence that their business has been disrupted by the coronavirus.
A full detailed guide for taxpayers will be posted on the Financial Administration website www.mfcr.cz. From Tuesday, March 17th, a public information line will be available on tel. 225 092 392.
