7. 11. 2018
7. 11.
2018
Latest news - November 2018
Last month’s tax and legal news in a few sentences.
- It took the Austrian Office for Personal Data Protection (Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde) four months to impose a penalty under the EU GDPR rules, which is presumably the first ever penalty imposed in the European Union for the breach of General Data Protection Regulation. A fine of EUR 4 800 was imposed on an Austrian entrepreneur for the unlawful monitoring of a public space via CCTV cameras in front of his shop. The monitored space was not duly designated, which also resulted in a breach of the duty of transparency. Under the GDPR, the supervisory authority may impose a penalty of up to EUR 20 million or 4% of the worldwide turnover for the previous year.
- In its October session, the Chamber of Deputies did not finish the first reading of a government draft amendment to the Act on Electronic Reporting of Sales. It is therefore certain that the amendment will not be passed before the year-end, which threatens its planned effectiveness from 1 July 2019.
- The Chamber of Deputies discussed the government’s proposal for the 2019 tax package in the first reading. It also shortened the time limit within which the proposal must be discussed in committees to 30 days. So, there is still a theoretical chance that the proposal will be passed before the year-end and will enter into effect on 1 January 2019. All depends on how quickly it will be discussed by the deputies at their next November session and by the Senate.
- Notice of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs No. 237/2018 Coll., prescribing the reduction limits to adjust daily assessment bases for sickness insurance in 2019, and Notice of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs No. 236/2018, declaring an increase in the amount decisive for the participation of employees in sickness insurance from CZK 2 500 to CZK 3 000, have been promulgated in the Collection of Laws.
- At its October meeting, the coalition council did not agree on an increase of the minimum wage for 2019. A final decision should be available in November.
- Another regular meeting of ECOFIN under the Austrian chairmanship will be held in Brussels on Tuesday 6 November 2018. The European finance ministers will discuss a proposal for the taxation of digital services.
- New prescribed forms for employees’ payroll tax statements for 2019 will not be issued; instead, last prescribed form no. 26, or prescribed forms no. 25 or no. 24, will be used. In its Information of 24 October 2018, the GFD draws attention to a minor change in the .xml structure of this prescribed form and to the .xml structure of a new prescribed form of the application for the annual settlement of tax on wages (which should be available from the tax authorities starting mid-December).
- The Chamber of Deputies passed an amendment to the Insolvency Act in its third reading, aiming to make the debt discharge concept available to more debtors. According to the Ministry of Justice, an important element of the whole debt discharge process is the debtor’s active effort to remedy their irresponsible behaviour. The draft amendment is now heading to the Senate.
- The Ministry of Justice is preparing an act on lobbing and a related amendment to the Act on Conflict of Interest. The amendment will extend the duty to report gifts (from CZK 10 000 to CZK 5 000) and will cancel the aggregate value of received gifts totalling more than CZK 100 000.
- On Wednesday 31 October 2018, the Chamber of Deputies passed an amendment to the Labour Code, submitted by the ČSSD deputies, aiming from 1 July 2019 to abolish waiting periods, i.e. the first three days of a temporary inability to work during which employees do not receive any wage or salary compensation. According to the amendment, wage or salary compensation will be provided from the first day of the employee’s inability to work. Employers’ increased costs in this respect should be compensated by a reduction in contributions to the sickness insurance scheme of 0.2%. The amendment is now heading to the Senate. However, it can be expected that even if the Senate does not agree, the majority in the Chamber of Deputies will overrule it without any trouble.
- The CNB Bank Board has increased the two week repo rate (2T repo) by 25 basis points to 1.75%. At the same time, it decided to increase the Lombard rate to 2.75% and the discount rate to 0.75%. The new interest rates are valid from 2 November 2018.
- At the ECOFIN meeting of 6 November 2018, finance ministers discussed a digital services tax (DST) as part of a digital taxation legislative package issued by the European Commission in March 2018. The main reason for changing the current system is an attempt to adapt the international taxation rules to highly digitalised business models. DST should serve as a short-term solution until an agreement on the permanent worldwide change in the taxation of the digital economy is reached. The ministers have not yet agreed on the extent and duration of a directive. They also discussed other open issues such as the directive’s incompliance with bilateral double taxation treaties. The current EU presidency holder, Austria has the ambition to pass DST before the year-end.
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