There are only four working days left until the end of the deadline for filing tax returns electronically. It is scheduled for Tuesday, May 2, i.e. right after the first May long weekend. Online must be submitted by all entrepreneurs and some other owners of data boxes. See what to look out for.
According to the law, all business persons must have a data box this year. The Ministry of the Interior has been establishing it for them since January. Now virtually all entrepreneurs, companies, associations and non-profit organizations have a data card. And it applies to them that they have to submit tax returns electronically, i.e. via a data box, for example.
Ordinary citizens who voluntarily set up a data card themselves were given a choice – either submit a return on paper by April 3, or now electronically by May 2. For persons for whom a tax advisor or lawyer submits a tax return, the filing deadline ends on July 3.
The tax return in electronic form must be submitted in .xml format. So it is not enough to send, for example, a scanned form in .pdf format via a data box or e-mail.
It is not necessary to send the tax return form in the prescribed format exclusively via a data card, it can also be filled out via the MY TAX portal and sent directly to the tax office.
“Along with the submission of the tax return, entrepreneurs must also pay the calculated personal income tax. However, both for the submission of the tax return and for the payment of the tax, there is a certain tolerance period during which sanctions can still be avoided. The penalty for late submission does not start until the sixth a working day after the deadline, this year from Wednesday 10 May,” explained the tax advisor of BDO Jakub Klíma.
Sanctions range from the following:
0.05% of the stipulated tax for each subsequent day of delay, but not more than five percent of the stipulated tax, 0.05% of the stipulated tax deduction for each subsequent day of delay, but not more than five percent of the stipulated tax deduction, 0.01% of the stipulated tax loss for each subsequent day day of delay, but no more than five percent of the determined tax loss.
“At the same time, the fine will not be assessed if its amount does not exceed the amount of 1,000 crowns. However, if the taxpayer does not submit a tax return even after being asked by the tax administrator, it is calculated from the upper limit of the percentage range and amounts to a minimum of 500 crowns. The maximum amount of the fine can be up to 300 thousand crowns,” reminded Michal Jelínek, partner of V4 Group.
Anyone who fails to correct a filing defect even when prompted by the tax administrator is required by law to pay a fine of 1,000 crowns. “Whereas this fine can be increased up to 50,000 crowns if the taxpayer does not remove the filing defects and this fact seriously complicates tax administration,” Jelínek added.
Watch out for the paper
During these weeks, tax office staff will contact entrepreneurs who filed returns in paper form – even though they already had access to the data box on the day of filing – by e-mail, via SMS or by phone. They explain to them that it is necessary to file the tax return electronically again as soon as possible and thus correct any mistakes.
“On the other hand, if you have already submitted your tax return for 2022 in paper form and at the time of submission you did not yet have access to the data box or you did not report any income from self-employment in it as a natural person, you have done the right thing and there is no need to submit the tax return electronically again,” Gabriela Ivanco, a tax expert from Mazars, previously recalled for Aktuálně.cz.
By default, the data box is made available when users log into it for the first time using their access data. “However, if you have never logged in to your data box, please note that on the 15th day after the access data was delivered, your data box was made available automatically,” Ivanco concluded.
If people did not receive their access data or did not pick it up in time, they have the option to request it again – online through the Citizen’s Identity, in person at Czech Points or in writing at mojedatovaschranka.cz.
The existence of a data box can be verified at the tax office or on the website of the List of data box holders.
