CORONAVIRUS: Legal implications for businesses in the Czech Republic

After its meeting on Monday, April 27, the government announced that, in addition to the self-employed, it also intends to support shareholder/members and executives of some limited liability companies. It also announced the approval of its intention to defer employers' payment of social security contributions for employees and the extension of the Antivirus programme.

Currently, when measures are being taken due to the coronavirus epidemic, a number of questions arise regarding the payment of social security and health insurance premiums. In addition, self-employed persons are resolving, for example, how the permitted late filing of income tax returns will affect the deadline for submitting an overview of income and expenditure for 2019 and the payment of insurance premium supplements and other advance payments.

General questions with respect to the impact of extraordinary measures on contractual relations have been mentioned HERE, in relation to financing contracts there are certain specifics, the basic outline of which is set forth in this note. In addition to arrangements between suppliers and customers, financing contracts are another cornerstone of any business and private life, so due attention should be paid to them in times of emergency measures so that the particular entities have not lost access to financing of their business and other activities.

While stock exchanges worldwide have experienced dramatic downturns and the economy is apparently heading for a global recession, supervisory organs are taking measures to respond to the situation by means of financial market regulation. In this regard, we consider the most important measure so far to be the shifting of financial reporting deadlines by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), however also significant are the recommendations of ESMA and the European Banking Authority (EBA) on the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on accounting, respectively its impact on the qualification of financial instruments, which is an issue that issuers of securities admitted to trading on regulated markets (as well as financial institutions) will have to deal with in preparing annual reports.

Currently, when measures are being taken due to the coronavirus epidemic, a number of questions arise regarding the payment of social security and health insurance premiums. In addition, self-employed persons are resolving, for example, how the permitted late filing of income tax returns will affect the deadline for submitting an overview of income and expenditure for 2019 and the payment of insurance premium supplements and other advance payments.