Tax & Legal Update

First change to new investment incentive criteria

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted an amendment to the Government Decree on Investment Incentives aiming to provide more substantial support for investments involving selected strategic products…

News in brief, September 2020

Last month’s tax and legal news in a few sentences.

Business with Northern Ireland after Brexit

The European Commission has prepared a draft of changes to the VAT rules applicable to trading with Northern Ireland. The draft has been submitted as part of the preparations for Brexit at the end of this year. The new rules adjust the existing…

Italian Supreme Court applying beneficial ownership and abuse of right

In its July judgement, the Italian Supreme Court applied the principles formulated by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in the Danish cases clarifying certain preconditions for applying an exemption from withholding tax under the EU directive on…

Adaptation/integration courses for foreigners in the CR

The adaptation and integration of foreigners has been a hot topic worldwide. The first element of foreigner integration was introduced to Czech legislation already in 2009 in the form of a Czech language exam as a precondition for certain types of…

Immovable property acquisition tax – to pay or not to pay?

The bill to abolish the immovable property acquisition tax is currently going through the legislative process. The Ministry of Finance had expected it to pass smoothly and become valid by the end of 2020. The related extraordinary measure of June…

Who will benefit from abolition of super-gross wage?

The government has decided to proceed with the long-promised abolition of the super-gross wage, while at the same time introducing the progression of personal income tax. The Chamber of Deputies is currently debating an amendment to tax laws, which…

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has presented ‘kurzarbeit’

At the end of August, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs published a draft amendment to the Employment Act introducing into Czech law the long-awaited support during partial unemployment, commonly called ‘kurzarbeit’. Kurzarbeit is to replace…

The government has decided: Antivirus A and B to continue until the end of October

On 24 August 2020, the government approved the extension of the present regimes A and B of the Antivirus programme until 31 October 2020; originally, both were supposed to end at the end of August. Regime C, comprising the waiver of social security…

Is it possible to correct tax base for claims not lodged in insolvency proceedings?

In Case C-146/19, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) held that a creditor may adjust the VAT base for a claim not lodged in insolvency proceedings if they prove that the claim would have been irrecoverable even if it had been lodged in…

Compensation for unrealised service paid upon early contract termination subject to…

The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) held that the amount paid by customers upon early terminations of contracts should be considered part of the price for services and thus subject to VAT. The CJEU based its judgment primarily on the recent…

News in brief, August 2020

Last month’s tax and legal news in a few sentences.