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Latest news - October 2018

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

  • Early in October, the Chamber of Deputies will debate in the second reading an amendment to the Labour Code proposed by the deputies. It abolishes the ‘waiting period’ – the first three days of temporary inability to work during which employees and civil servants do not receive any wage or salary compensation. This legal concept was introduced into Czech law in 2008, then abolished by the Constitutional Court, and reintroduced in 2009. The present motion intends to abolish it again, with the proposed effective date of 1 July 2019.
     
  • After a stormy debate, the Chamber of Deputies passed an amendment to the Criminal Code, which introduces an entirely new offence – perverting the course of justice. The offence is committed by submitting false or modified evidence. Perverting the course of justice will involve exclusively real and documentary evidence that has a significant effect on the court’s decision – namely forged bills of exchange and promissory notes, contracts with purposively stated dates or falsified signatures, modified photographs or data. Unlike originally proposed, it will not be a serious crime, meaning that wiretapping cannot be used to investigate it. The amendment is now going to the senate.
     
  • The Chamber of Deputies concluded its 19th session. The deputies did not have time to discuss the 2019 Tax Package (Print 206) in the first reading. The first reading of another closely watched bill –Print 205, an amendment to the ERS Act – was interrupted.
     
  • The CNB Bank Board has increased the two week repo rate (2T repo) by 25 basic points to 1.50%. At the same time, it decided to increase the Lombard rate to 2.50 % and the discount rate to 0.50%. The new interest rates are valid from 27 September 2018.
     
  • Government Decree No. 213/2018 on the amount of the general assessment base for 2017, the recalculation coefficient for adjusting the general assessment base for 2017, the reduction limits for determining the calculation base for 2019 and the basic amount of pension for 2019, and on increasing pensions in 2019 was published in the Collection of Laws. As a result, the limit for participation in sickness insurance increases from CZK 2 500 to 3 000 per month in 2019. Also, the maximum assessment base for social security premiums increased to CZK 1 569 552; this amount will also affect the solidarity tax surcharge.
     
  • Effective 1 July 2019, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs proposes to increase the parental allowance (for children up to four years of age) from the present CZK 220 thousand to CZK 260 thousand. Families with twins and multiples would be entitled to CZK 390 thousand instead of the present CZK 330 thousand.