Draft Amendment to the VAT Act01/05/08 / cata_tax-news

Pursuant to our information in the previous issue of Tax News, the Government presented a draft VAT Act to the Parliament of the Czech Republic. This long-prepared amendment primarily harmonizes the provisions of the Czech VAT Act with the provisions of Directive 2006/112/EC (the so-called Sixth Directive Recast) and provides suggestions for simplification and improvement of certain other provisions.

The most significant changes are as follows:

  • The tax may be reduced if the taxpayer applies a wrong rate or tax exemption.
  • Adjustment to definition of turnover – the operating business should be the decisive criterion for inclusion into turnover and not the manner of accounting on a particular transaction.
  • The accounting terms “revenue” and “income” should be replaced by the term “fee” (or “consideration”) due to the said adjustment to definition of turnover.
  • The place of supply for services to foreign parties operating a business (i.e. not only an entity registered for tax in another member state) should be determined pursuant to the registered office or principal place of business of the recipient of the service.
  • The amendment suggests that rules for calculation of the factor reducing the input tax deduction be changed.
  • The date of taxable supply for real estate transfers should be changed to the date on which the real estate is released to the transferee.

The amendment should take effect on 1 January 2009.