Approved and Effective Laws13/07/09 / cata_tax-news

Amendment to the Tax Administration Act - changes in service; Data mailboxes

Amendment to the Tax Administration Act - changes in service

On 1 July 2009 an amendment to the Tax Administration Act came into effect (see Part 4 of Act No. 7/2009 Coll., amending the Civil Procedure Code) supplementing the rules for delivering tax documents in cases where the addressee of the document cannot be reached and the document is saved at the post office. The addressee may pick up the tax document at the post office within fifteen days of notification of delivery. If the addressee does not collect the tax document at the post office within this period, the postman shall deliver it to the mailbox of the addressee (provided the tax authority does not prohibit such possibility) and the tax document shall be deemed to have been delivered and served. If this mailbox does not exist, the document shall be returned to the tax authority and notification of delivery shall be posted on the bulletin board at the tax office. Pursuant to this amendment, the recipients of tax documents may acknowledge the actual content of the delivered tax documents more quickly.

Data mailboxes

Act No. 300/2008 Coll., on Electronic Communication, Personal Numbers and Authorized Conversion of Documents (“the Act”), came into effect from 1 July 2009 and established the usage of data mailboxes. The data mailbox is an electronic repository to be used for being informed by public authorities and for informing public authorities of any actions against them. The data mailbox is set up at no cost and managed by the Ministry of Interior. Communication via data mailboxes is free.

Following expiry of the three-month transitional period - i.e. from 1 October 2009, data mailboxes must be set up for public authorities, legal entities, branches of foreign legal entities registered in the Commercial Register and legal entities established by law. Other legal entities and natural persons, entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs can request their data mailbox to be set up.

After the expiry of transition period, the public authorities are obliged to notify all entities who have set up a data mailbox via their data mailboxes and not through the post. Natural persons and legal entities will have a choice in communication with public authorities - they can communicate with them either through data boxes or continue writing through the postal system.

Pursuant to the Act, “public authorities” mean state authorities (government, administrative and other state offices, courts, public prosecution, the security forces, the Czech National Bank, the Ombudsman and others), the local government units, state funds, health insurance, Czech Radio and Czech TV, associations established by law, notaries and court executors.

Generally, there is no need for an electronic signature to log in to a data mailbox and send documents to public authorities. This is required only in cases when more people have access to one data mailbox and it is necessary to clearly identify which person is sending a message. This situation occurs, for example, in a limited liability company with two statutory bodies when both of them are required to sign on behalf of the company.

Documents sent by a public authority to the data mailbox of an entity are deemed to have been delivered by the recipient logging into the data mailbox. If the recipient does not log in within 10 days after delivery, the document is nonetheless deemed to have been delivered after 10 days.

The Act provides for the procedure for conversion of electronic documents delivered to the mailbox data to hard copies, including who is entitled to conduct authorized conversion (i.e. resulting in an official document and not merely uncertified copies).