Czech Taxes 2026 (For Freelancers): What You Need to Know (and Why It Matters for Your Residence Permit)

Freelancers in the Czech Republic — this one’s for you. Whether you’re a digital nomad, remote worker, or independent contractor, the Czech tax system can feel like a maze. This guide breaks it down in plain English, gives you the latest updates for the 2026 tax season (reporting income for 2025), and explains why getting taxes right matters for your residence permit.

We have written similar guides for a few past tax seasons so we were thinking how to make this one even better, simpler and as useful as possible. The best seems to be dividing this potentially complicated and confusing process into steps you will need to take so you can absorb the information one bite at a time, take breaks if needed and come back to it whenever you feel ready.

1. Assess your tax situation in the Czech Republic

Although there are some general rules in the Czech tax system, the next steps will be slightly different for everyone. Below you can find the most important questions you should ask yourself, along with explanation why they matter.

The most Important Questions about Czech Taxes

are you in the flat tax scheme – if you are using the Flat Tax in the Czech Republic, you basically do not need to worry about anything in this article since you do not need to do yearly tax returns, just make sure that you increase your monthly payments from January 2026 (see further in the article),
are you a full time freelancer or you combine freelancing (self-employment) and employment – if you combine employment and self-employment in the Czech Republic, your self-employment is always considered a secondary activity, your taxes in this situation are done in a different way than if you are a full time freelancer,
do you have international income – preventing double taxation, different submission deadlines in different countries, different tax rates and rules – all that (and more) must be taken into considerations if you have international income (see further in the article),
will you need to prove your monthly income to get or extend your residence permit – if you are applying for a business residence permit, partnership visa or their extensions, or if you in general use your freelance income for your residence permit application, you must be extra careful – if you do your taxes incorrectly, that can very realistically endanger your stay in the Czech Republic (read further below),
do you plan on getting a loan/mortgage – similar as in the previous point – you need to be careful with how you do your taxes. Although banks often have other ways of checking your income, not getting a loan or a mortgage just because you didot do your taxes correctly might be an unpleasant surprise.

2. Set your Timeline/Deadlines

When you know where you stand in terms of how complex your taxes might be, it is time to set firm deadlines. There are some official deadlines which we mention below. There are some other factors you should consider though.

Official Tax Deadlines in Czech Republic in 2026

Tax Office
General deadline for income tax return (electronic) submission is May 4, 2026.
If you have a tax to pay, it should be paid on the day of submission of your tax return, latest on May 4, 2026.
If you use a tax advisor, you can submit your income tax return until July 1, 2026.

Social Security Office
The latest you can submit your Social Security report is one month after the tax submission deadline – June 1, 2026 for regular submissions and August 3, 2026 for submissions via a tax advisor.
If you have something extra to pay to the social security, it must be done within 8 days of submitting the reports.

Health Insurance
If you contribute to the public health insurance system as well, the rules are very similar to the social security.
The latest you can submit your health insurance report is one month after the tax submission deadline – June 4, 2026 for regular submissions and August 3, 2026 for submissions via a tax advisor.
If you have something extra to pay to the health insurance, it must be done within 8 days of submitting the reports.

Other Important Deadlines to Consider in Regards to your Czech Taxes

If you are gonna use the taxes to prove your income to the Ministry of the Interior (or to any other authority such as your bank), you should also consider these:

when does your visa or residence permit expire –
when do you submit your new application(when do you need the documents by –

CAUTION – Not all accountants are Tax Advisers!

3. Consult a professional Accountant or a Tax Adviser

Yes, there are online services where you just fill in your data and it prepares your tax return and subsequent reports (to social security and health care) for you. Should you use them? Well.

They might be very useful if your taxes are simple and straightforward with low stakes. If you have international income and or your taxes must be perfect for your immigration matters, we would probably not risk it.

A professional accountant or a tax adviser …

If you do not have yours at the moment, get in touch and we’ll be happy to recommend one. We mostly work with Michal who is an experienced tax advisor (so he can extend your submission deadlines if needed) and who knows how your taxes are linked to your immigration matters.

If you need something more complex, we also work with and international tax firm.

What documents/information will you need to prepare

Increased monthly payments.

How are your Taxes Related to your Residence Permit Application

For most Czech visa or residence permit applications, you must prove either a sufficient amount of money in your bank account (usually the case for a long-term visa) or high enough monthly income (usually the case for residence permits).

If you are locally employed, it is super easy to prove your income since you get your monthly pay slips that clearly show your gross salary, paid income tax, social and health care contributions, and then your net salary.

It is unfortunately not this easy if you are are a freelancer.

How much you Must be Making to Qualify for a Residence Permit

First complication is that there is no one number that fits all. There is a calculation behind that which changes in time and depends on the city where you live and on the number of members of your household. The general calculation consists of two numbers:

Your housing cost
- this can be either your real housing cost (if you submit your lease agreement which shows your actual rent, utilities etc.)
  - say your monthly rent including utilities is 25 750 CZK, then the MOI will calculate using this number.
- if the MOI does not know how much you actually pay (because you submit the proof of accommodation form and not your actual lease agreement, they will calculate with some general numbers:
  - CZK 15,131 for one person,
  - CZK 17,266 for two persons in a family,
  - CZK 19,900 for three persons in a family,
  - CZK 21,510 for four persons in a family,
  - CZK 21,620 for five or more persons in a family.
“Living minimum”
- this is a theoretical amount of CZK one person needs to survive in the Czech Republic for a month, and it depends on the age of the applicant and again on the amount of people living in the same household, goes like this:
  - 4 860 CZK a month for a single person,
- if a couple or a family is calculated together, the first person is always 4 470 CZK and the other persons are calculated like this:
  - CZK 4,040 for a person over 15 years of age who is not a dependent child,
  - CZK 3,490 for a dependent child from 15 to 26 years of age,
  - CZK 3,050 for a dependent child from 6 to 15 years of age,
  - CZK 2,480 for a dependent child under 6 years of age.

Simple examples

To make this a bit more comprehensible, let’s look at three different examples:

Single person who submitted a proof of accommodation form
In this case, the MOI does not know your real rent, so the calculation goes like this: 15 131 CZK (housing cost) + 4 860 CZK (living minimum) = 19 991 CZK a month.
Single person who submitted lease agreement
Let’s say your monthly rent is 15 500 CZK, your electricity is 1 500 CZK and your gas is 1 000 CZK. In this case the MOI will calculate with: 18 000 CZK (housing cost of 15 500 CZK + 1 500 CZK + 1 000 CZK) + 4 860 CZK = 22 860 CZK a month.
Married couple with 5 years old child who submitted a proof of accommodation
The MOI will calculate with three people in this household which means: 19 900 CZK (housing cost for three people) + 4 470 (first person living minimum) + 4 040 CZK (spouse living minimum) + 2 480 (child below 6 living minimum) = 30 890 CZK a month.

If the married couple with a child submitted their lease agreement to the MOI, the MOI would count with the actual rent and utilities instead of the 19 900 CZK of the “normative rent and energy standard rate” – yes that is the official name :D.

Now, when the MOI knows how much you should be making, they will compare this number to your actual income.

If you are an employee, they look at your salary slip, look for your net salary and if the net salary is higher than how much you should be making based on the calculation above, you are good and your residence permit can be approved. If your net salary is lower than the required minimum, your application will very likely be denied.

The calculation is simple in this case – if you are person number 1 in our examples (single, using proof of accommodation), you must be making 19 991 CZK a month. If your salary is above this (even 1 CZK), you are good.

Unfortunately, the calculation is far from straightforward for freelancers.

How does the MOI Calculate your Freelance Income

If you are a freelancer, there is not simple way to determine your actual net income as it is with salary slips of employees. The MOI must go a bit more complicated route to see if you make more that what you are supposed to make.

In case of freelancers, the MOI needs to get these three or four numbers:

Your total yearly income.
Your total tax paid from the income.
Your total social security payments.
Your total health care payments – if you contribute to the public system.

Once they have these numbers, the put them into an equation:

Total Income – Paid tax – Total Social Security Paid – Total Health Care Paid = Your Net Yearly Income

Then they divide this by the number of months your trade license was active in that particular year in question. We’ll keep it simple and just use 12 for our calculations. If you only had trade license for portion of the year (i.e. 6 months, or 5 or 8), use that number instead.

A real example now, again for a single person (so not spouse or children tax discounts apply).

500 000 CZK (total income) – 44 160 CZK (income tax) – 80 300 CZK (total social security) – 39 664 (total health insurance if applicable) = 335 876 CZK / 12 = 27 898 CZK (net monthly income).

27 898 CZK (your net monthly income) is higher than 19 991 CZK and hence your residence permit application will likely be approved. Yay!

🚨60/40 METHOD – THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE ARTICLE 🚨

Now, a lot of accountants (or online systems) will talk you into using the 60/40 method. That means that you will say that 60% of your income were your expenses (which everyone can say by the law, without needing to prove that – it is kind of a support of freelancers). This means that you will only pay taxes from 40% of your income.

Great news from the tax perspective! You will pay significantly lower taxes and social security contributions.

The MOI though, will also only calculate with the 40% as your income. Let’s see what it does with the same income of a single person.

500 000 CZK (total income) – 60% = 200 000 CZK – 0 CZK (income tax) – 47 185 CZK (total social security) – 39 664 CZK (total health insurance if applicable) = 113 151 CZK/ 12 = 9 429 CZK (net monthly income).

9 429 CZK (your net monthly income) is way lower than 19 991 CZK and hence your residence permit application will almost certainly be denied. Nay!

Same income, two different ways of doing taxes. One way gets your application approved with a solid buffer in case the numbers change. Once way gets your application denied.

Obviously,

Key Parts of the System

Income Tax Rates for 2026 / 2025 Income

Basic rate: 15% of taxable income
Higher rate: 23% on income above CZK 1,762,812 (approx CZK 146,900/month)

How Freelancers Calculate Taxable Income
You can choose between:

Actual expenses (you keep receipts and deduct real costs), or
Flat expenses (paušál) — a percentage of revenue as a standard deduction (e.g., 60% for many freelance professions).

You’ll report your income and expenses in the annual tax return, usually due by March/April (or May if you use an accountant).

Important: If you’ve been doing this for a while, many people default to the flat expense method because it’s simple — but sometimes it doesn’t show your true financial situation in the way immigration authorities want to see it.

2. Why Your Taxes Matter for Your Residence Permit

If you’re applying to extend or replace your long-term or permanent residence permit, Czech law requires you to show you can financially support yourself during your stay.

The Ministry of the Interior (MV) uses several benchmarks to decide if your financial situation meets this requirement, including:

Life Minimum (Životní minimum) – baseline subsistence income
Normative Housing Costs (Normativní náklady na bydlení) – estimated rent + utilities
Other costs (e.g., living expenses)

These are used to assess your Proof of Funds for permit purposes. Getting taxes right isn’t just about the financial office — it’s part of staying legally in the country.

What Are These Numbers?

Life Minimum (Životní Minimum) 2026
From January 1, 2026:

Single individual: CZK 4,860/month
First adult in household: CZK 4,470
Second and subsequent adults: CZK 4,040
Children (various age bands): CZK 2,480–3,490

This is strictly what you need for bare survival — but the Ministry expects more than „bare bones“ when it reviews your proof of funds.

Normative Housing Costs 2025
Official estimates of housing costs used by authorities:

One or two persons living in an apartment in bigger cities (like Prague/Brno): around CZK 17,298/month
3 persons: around CZK 19,865/month
4+ persons: around CZK 23,984/month

These numbers are higher than just rent — they include utilities and other housing-related costs. They are regularly updated (usually yearly) and are part of official benefit / proof of income calculations.

3. Most Important Updates for 2026

Tax Thresholds and Brackets

The 23% higher tax rate threshold increases in 2026, meaning more of your income is taxed at 15% — good news for higher earners.

Minimum Social Insurance Contributions

If your trade license (OSVČ) is your main activity, minimum monthly social insurance payments increase significantly in 2026. If it’s your secondary activity, there’s a different (lower) minimum. Make sure your monthly pre-payments are aligned with the current rules so you don’t get a surprise bill later.

Proof of Funds Rules Changed (Oct 2025)

From October 1, 2025, there’s a new way of calculating housing costs and energy norms that the Ministry uses for residence permit applications. This can affect how strong your proof of funds looks — even if your tax return is technically correct.

4. Practical Scenarios (What This Means for You)

Scenario 1: You’re Seeing a Profit but It Looks Low

If your net profit is just above the life minimum, immigration may still question whether you can afford rent and living costs. Demonstrating actual income and stable tax declarations aligned with the normative numbers strengthens your case.

Scenario 2: You Use Paušál Expenses

Paušál makes taxes simple, but it can also make your declared income look lower than reality. Sometimes it’s worth doing a real cost analysis for immigration purposes — even if your annual tax bill goes up a bit.

Scenario 3: Your Residence Permit Renewal Is Soon

Start your accounting early. Collect documents proving consistent and realistic income and ensure your tax return and pre-payments reflect your real situation.

5. FAQs

Q: What if my taxes are filed late?
Late filings can trigger fines and weaker proof of financial stability in immigration evaluations.

Q: Can I use tax returns from previous years?
Yes — especially if they show stable income — but they should match what you report on your permit applications.

Q: Are health & social insurance payments part of proof of funds?
Yes. Authorities want evidence that you not only earn enough but also pay statutory contributions.

6. Wrap-Up: Be Smart, Be Prepared

Taxes are not just a yearly chore — they’re a cornerstone of proving your economic stability in the Czech Republic as a freelancer. Getting them right, paying on time, and showing realistic income can make a huge difference when you renew your residence permit.

7. Get Personalized Help

If this sounds overwhelming — you’re not alone. We have an experienced accountant and tax adviser on our team who specializes in freelancer taxes with immigration context. He can help you with:

Accurate tax filings tailored to your situation
Optimizing deductions without hurting your residence permit
Structuring income to meet proof-of-funds requirements
Preparing documentation for immigration applications

Ready to talk? Visit Contacts to schedule a consultation.

If you want visuals such as tax deadline timelines or comparison tables between pension/health/social insurance minimums, I can prepare those too. Just ask!