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Dear Readers,

Please find below our short news for June 2024:

• On 19 June 2024, a law, which amends the Act on Investment Companies, was announced in the Collection of Laws under no. 163/2024 Coll.; this law also contains a technical amendment to the consolidation package.
   
• On 19 June 2024, a law, which amends the Act on Transformations of Corporations and Cooperatives, was announced in the Collection of Laws under no. 162/2024 Coll. You can find more information in one of our previous articles.
   
• The General Financial Directorate (the “GFD”) published their opinion on providing for consistent administration of top-up taxes. In the GFD’s view, OECD materials, on which Council Directive (EU) 2022/2523 and Act No. 416/2023 Coll. are based, will not be translated into Czech in order to maintain unity and consistency in applying new rules across all states and taxpayers. The GFD will provide methodological support in the form of expert meetings with taxpayers’ representatives and representatives of relevant professional organisations. More information is available here.
   
• The GFD issued Information on Exemption of Income from Catering for Former Employees in Old-age or Disability Pension. The Information follows upon Act No. 163/2024 Coll. (see above), which brought changes in the Act on Income Taxes (among other things). One of those changes is introduction of a threshold for individual income tax exemption for catering allowances in the form of non-monetary supply provided by an employer to their former employees who worked for the employer at the time of leaving for old-age or disability pension. The exemption will apply retrospectively as of 1 January 2024, i.e. employers can make adjustments to withheld advances for tax and insurance premium. Details are available here.
   
• The Ministry of Finance published an opinion on the planned extension of the possibility to apply tax deductibility to assistance to Ukraine up to 2026.
   
• The Financial Administration published Financial Newsletter No. 5/2024, which contains a List of Contracting States Applying a Common Standard for Reporting and Material Dates, and a List for the Purposes of Discharging the Duty to Inform pursuant to Act No. 164/2013 Coll., on International Cooperation in Tax Administration.
   
• Please be advised that certain legislative regulations of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs came into force on 1 July 2024: the care allowance has been increased, employers are newly obliged to register all agreements to perform a job with the Czech Social Security Administration Authority (employers will be obliged to meet the duty to report no later than as of 20 August 2024 for the first time), a list of countries, whose citizens have a free access to the labour market, came into force, and the allowance for facilities for children who require immediate help has been increased by a Government Regulation. You can read more information in a press release of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Michaela Kozminská
kozminska@clarksonhyde.cz