- File your corporate income tax registration within 15 days of the company's formation, meaning its entry in the Commercial Register.
- An s.r.o. gets a data box (datová schránka) automatically by law (Act No. 300/2008 Coll.). You do not apply for it, but you do have to watch it from day one.
- An s.r.o. must keep double-entry accounting from its date of formation, even if it has not issued a single invoice yet (§ 1(2) of the Accounting Act).
- Neither VAT registration nor identified-person status has anything to do with incorporation. A specific event triggers them — turnover above CZK 2,000,000, or a cross-border transaction (§ 6 and § 6h of the VAT Act). Track both triggers separately.
Responsibility for this page rests with Ganado International s.r.o., company ID 19322119 (ARES registry entry). It is general information as of the update date, not tax advice on your specific case.
Obligations after formation — in the order they arrive
The order below follows how obligations usually arrive after a company is formed. Each item gives the deadline, the authority that handles it, and a link to the primary source.
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Corporate income tax registration
Every s.r.o. files a registration application for corporate income tax unless its income is only tax-exempt or taxed by withholding. The tax office then assigns a tax identification number (DIČ) and delivers the registration decision to the data box.
Source: Czech Financial Administration — Starting a business
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Activating and monitoring the data box
Every s.r.o. in the Commercial Register gets a data box (datová schránka) by law, automatically and free of charge, under Act No. 300/2008 Coll. You do not apply for it, but you do have to watch it from day one: delivery to a data box has the same legal effect as registered mail, including starting statutory deadlines.
Source: Act No. 300/2008 Coll., on electronic acts and authorized conversion of documents
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Monitoring turnover for mandatory VAT registration
A company becomes a VAT payer once its calendar-year turnover exceeds CZK 2,000,000 (payer from 1 January of the following year, with the option to pick an earlier date) or CZK 2,536,500 (payer the day after the threshold is crossed). Either way, file the registration application within 10 business days of the day the threshold was crossed.
Source: Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on Value Added Tax, §§ 6 and 94
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Registration as an identified person
Identified-person status arises when the company receives a service from a foreign taxable person with the place of supply in Czechia, acquires goods from another EU member state above the threshold, or supplies a cross-border service — while it is not, and does not want to be, a VAT payer. File the registration application within 15 days of that status arising, independently of VAT registration.
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Social security for the director and employees
As an employer, the company must register with the OSSZ within 8 calendar days of that duty arising — usually when the first employee starts, or when the director (jednatel) begins drawing a fee that triggers sickness-insurance participation. The same 8-day window applies to registering each further employee.
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Health insurance for employees and the director
The employer notifies the health insurer within 8 days when an employee starts, and when a director draws a fee that triggers health-insurance participation. Under an amendment to Act No. 48/1997 Coll. (made by Act No. 289/2025 Coll.) effective 1 January 2026, these notifications must be filed electronically.
Source: VZP ČR — Employer notification duty
Source: VZP ČR — Mandatory electronic employer notifications (from 1 Jan 2026)
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Keeping accounting records from day one
An s.r.o. is always an accounting entity and keeps double-entry accounting from the date it is entered in the Commercial Register, regardless of when it starts trading or invoicing. There is no grace period without bookkeeping.
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Opening a business bank account
The law sets no deadline for opening a business account, but you need one to pay in the share capital and to run day-to-day operations. Once the company becomes a VAT payer, it must also register and publish at least one bank account with the tax office for payments for taxable supplies — otherwise the customer can end up liable for unpaid VAT.
Source: Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on Value Added Tax, §§ 96, 98 and 109
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Registering the beneficial owner
With a simple structure, meaning one or more individual shareholders, the Register of Beneficial Owners is usually filled automatically from the Commercial Register. With a more complex ownership structure, you have to file the registration yourself, without undue delay after the company is formed.
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Getting your first invoice right
A company that is not a VAT payer yet still has to put the statutory elements on an invoice: company name, ID number (IČO), registered seat, document number, description of the supply, and price. A VAT payer or identified person must also meet the tax-document requirements under § 29 of the VAT Act, including the tax ID number and the date of supply.
Register for VAT, or stay outside it?
This is the decision every new company faces, and it does not turn on preference — it turns on what has happened. Find your row:
| Your situation | What it means |
|---|---|
| Czech turnover under CZK 2,000,000, invoicing inside Czechia only | No registration and nothing to file. Do keep tracking turnover, because the threshold is measured per calendar year (§ 6(1) of the VAT Act). |
| Turnover passed CZK 2,000,000 | You become a VAT payer from 1 January of the following year, and you may opt for an earlier date. File the registration application within 10 business days of crossing the threshold (§ 94(1)). |
| Turnover passed CZK 2,536,500 | You are a VAT payer from the day after the threshold is crossed, with no choice in the matter (§ 6(2)(b)). The same 10-business-day application window applies. |
| You buy advertising or software from abroad (Google, Meta, cloud tools) | You become an identified person on the day you receive that supply (§ 6h), with 15 days to file the registration (§ 97). You do not become a VAT payer, and you account for VAT only on those supplies. |
| You acquire goods from another EU member state above CZK 326,000 a year | Below that value the acquisition is outside the scope of the tax; above it you become an identified person from the first acquisition that is within scope (§ 2a(2) and § 6g). |
| Your customers are Czech VAT payers and your input VAT is high | Voluntary registration is available (§ 94a). It only pays off if the VAT you pay on inputs exceeds what you would charge on outputs — run it on your own numbers, not on a recommendation. |
Identified person and VAT payer are two separate statuses; neither replaces or rules out the other. Track the triggers separately.
What you send, what we do, when it is done
Setting up a new company is one-off work; after that you just send documents. It runs like this:
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What you send
Your IČO and the date of entry in the Commercial Register, your line of business, whether you will have employees, and whether you are already buying anything from abroad. If the register or the tax office has sent anything to your data box, forward it.
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What we do
We check which of the obligations above are already met and which are not, confirm where you stand on the 15-day income tax registration, assess whether identified-person status has already arisen, and write down what we file and what you file. We also set up how documents reach us each month.
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When it is done
You get a written reply with the next step and a price, usually within 1 business day. The income tax registration has a 15-day window from formation, so if you are inside it we say so in that first reply.
Written reply, no call — usually within 1 business day.
What is billed separately
The monthly bookkeeping price covers a new company's ordinary agenda. These items sit outside it:
| Payroll | from 490 CZK per employee per month | Payroll calculation, payslip and the agreed reporting to ČSSZ and the health insurer. This also covers a director who starts drawing a fee. |
|---|---|---|
| First employee and payroll setup | from 990 CZK | Registration with the OSSZ and the health insurer, opening data, workflow setup and the first calculation. |
| Takeover from another provider | free | Only relevant if someone already kept the company's books and you are moving to us. Unprocessed historical periods are quoted once we have reviewed them. |
| Unprepared earlier periods and corrections | by scope, price confirmed up front | Posting months with no bookkeeping, supplementary returns and follow-up control statements. Nothing starts without your go-ahead. |
With continuous bookkeeping, the annual financial statements and the corporate income tax inputs are part of the monthly price — for a new company that is the single largest item you will not be billed for separately. Individual tax or legal advice is not part of the service. Rates are on the pricing page.
What accounting costs a new company in its first year
An example for a non-VAT s.r.o. with no employees and low activity in its first year — the typical state shortly after formation. Every figure comes from the same price list:
| Bookkeeping: 1,990 CZK × 12 months | 23,880 CZK |
|---|---|
| Annual financial statements and corporate income tax inputs | 0 CZK — included in continuous bookkeeping |
| First year, total | 23,880 CZK |
Once you take on a first employee, add payroll setup from 990 CZK and then 490 CZK per employee per month. Once the company becomes a VAT payer, the monthly rate changes with the scope of the agenda. Unprepared earlier periods are quoted separately and confirmed before we start.
First-year deadlines people miss most often
Under § 136 of the Tax Code (Act No. 280/2009 Coll., daňový řád), the corporate income tax return is due 3 months after the end of the tax period. Because every s.r.o. has a data box activated by law, the return is filed electronically, which makes the deadline 4 months. If a tax advisor prepares it under a power of attorney, or the company is subject to a mandatory audit, the deadline is 6 months.
Under § 66 of the Act on Public Registers (Act No. 304/2013 Coll.) and § 21a of the Accounting Act, the annual financial statements — balance sheet, profit and loss, notes — have to be filed in the Collection of Deeds of the Commercial Register within 12 months of the balance-sheet date. That applies to the company's first, partial financial year too. You can check your own filing in the Collection of Deeds, which is public — your business partners and your bank see exactly what you see.
An unfiled statement is not a formality. If a company ignores the register court's call to submit documents that belong in the Collection of Deeds, the court can impose a procedural fine of up to CZK 100,000 (§ 104 of Act No. 304/2013 Coll.). Where statements are missing for at least 2 consecutive accounting periods, the court gives the company 1 month to file them and otherwise proceeds under § 104; on repeated non-compliance, or where the call cannot be delivered, it can open proceedings to dissolve the company with liquidation (§ 105a and § 105). Not publishing the statements is also an offence under the Accounting Act, carrying a penalty of up to 3 % of total assets (§ 37a).
For a late return, the penalty only arises once the delay exceeds 5 working days; it is then 0.05 % of the assessed tax per day of delay, capped at 5 % of the tax and at CZK 300,000 overall, and a penalty below CZK 1,000 is not charged (§ 250 of the Tax Code). On a model tax of CZK 100,000 that is CZK 50 per day of delay with a CZK 5,000 ceiling; file within 30 days of the missed deadline with no other delay that year and the penalty is halved.
If the company employs nobody in its first year and the director draws no fee, the employer registrations above (OSSZ, health insurer) do not arise yet. They arise on the day that changes, and the same 8-day windows run from then.
VERIFIED
Sources (verified 2026-09-20)
The links below point to primary sources — statutes and the relevant authorities' own pages — as of the verification date in the heading. Deadlines and thresholds change over time, so confirm the current wording before acting on a specific case.
- Czech Financial Administration — Starting a business
- Act No. 300/2008 Coll., on electronic acts and authorized conversion of documents
- Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on Value Added Tax
- ČSSZ — Overview of employer obligations
- VZP ČR — Employer notification duty
- VZP ČR — Mandatory electronic employer notifications (from 1 Jan 2026)
- Act No. 563/1991 Coll., on Accounting
- Act No. 280/2009 Coll., Tax Code (daňový řád), § 136 (tax return filing deadlines)
- Act No. 304/2013 Coll., on Public Registers of Legal and Natural Persons, § 66 (Collection of Deeds)
- Register of Beneficial Owners — Ministry of Justice
- Public Register and Collection of Deeds — Ministry of Justice
- MOJE daně tax portal — Czech Financial Administration
- Act No. 300/2008 Coll., on electronic acts and authorized conversion of documents (consolidated text)