Chamber of deputies acting under a state of legislative emergency
On 1 March 2020, a state of emergency was declared for 30 days. Along with other measures, the chamber of deputies approved the suspension of the electronic reporting of sales (ERS), deferments/waivers of social security and health insurance payments, and carer’s allowances for employees. The bills are yet to be debated by the senators, who are ready to do so once they are delivered to them.
On 24 March 2020, the chamber debated several governmental bills under a state of legislative emergency, allowing their passage within a single day. The bills still must be approved by the senate and signed by the president.
The governmental bill awarding carer’s allowances to employees for the entire time that schools remain closed was passed with minor amendments, e.g., allowing parents to alternate in the care for their children. We informed you about this bill previously.
Via a separate bill, electronic reporting of sales was suspended for the duration of the state of emergency and three months after its end.
The amendment to the Act on Public Health Insurance Premiums will bring the following changes for the self-employed:
- extension of the deadline for filing annual statements of income, expense and prepayments for 2019 until 3 August 2020;
- waiver of penalties for late payment of premium/prepayments for March to August 2020; the penalty for late payment of premium/prepayment will be charged from 22 September at the earliest;
- cancellation of the duty to pay minimum premium prepayments (CZK 2 352 per month);
- if the self-employed have been assessed monthly prepayments higher than the minimum, for the period from March to August 2020 they shall only pay the amount in excess of the minimum prepayment. All amounts will then be settled within 8 days from filing the statement for 2020.
The act regulating social security premiums will bring the following changes for the self-employed:
- cancellation of the duty to pay monthly prepayments for pension insurance premiums and state employment policy contributions, regardless of the amount of monthly prepayments assessed;
- reduction of pension insurance premiums and state employment policy contribution payments for 2020 by CZK 2 544 for a person’s primary activity/CZK 1 018 for their secondary activity per each month in which the independent gainful activity was carried out for at least a part of the month;
in the annual statement of income, expense and prepayments for 2020, the minimum prepayments of pension insurance premium and state employment policy contribution that have been waived (those for March to August) will be deducted, in addition to prepayments actually paid in 2020 (those for January, February and September to December 2020)
The acts will enter into effect upon their promulgation in the Collection of Laws. We will inform you about these changes in more detail in future issues.