By Hannah Matson

PRAGUE — Zuzana Pocová doesn’t think much about tax policy while she’s behind the counter at Café 11 in Prague. But when asked about a new law working its way through Czech parliament, she had a fairly specific concern.

“For a lot of people who are older… I think this would be so complicated for them,” Pocová said. “They don’t know how to use their phone or even how to pay with their phone.”

Pocová, 20, has worked at the café for about five months. She pointed to her own family as an example.

“My grandpa still doesn’t know how to take money out of the bank machine … So for that generation, it would be so much harder to adjust.”

Younger Czechs, she said, will likely adjust faster.

“In 10 years, they will be like, okay, I know how to do everything, because I was growing up with my phone in my hand.”

Her coworker Tina K., 21, has worked at the café for eight months while attending school in Prague.

Tina, hearing about the law for the first time, reacted favorably.

“I think it’s good, because everything would be even better regulated,” Tina said.

A recent survey by the institute STEM, conducted for the Czech Ministry of Finance, found that roughly
two-thirds of Czechs support the law’s return.

What the law actually does

The policy requires small businesses to report their sales electronically. This includes cash payments, card swipes and QR code transactions. They would be sent directly to Czech tax authorities.

The policy is built to target cash-heavy businesses like cafés, restaurants and small shops. These are the kind of places where unreported income is hardest for the government to track.

Czech lawmakers approved the bill on July 15. It still needs to pass through the Senate, and get a signature from President Petr Pavel, according to Radio Prague International. Officials want to launch Jan. 1, 2027, with a short trial period beforehand, per Expats.cz.

The registration portal is set to go live in November 2026, with a free app for small businesses, called Moje EET, launching the following month.

This isn’t Czechia’s first attempt at electronic sales tracking — a nearly identical system ran from 2016 to 2023, before it was cut. This time, businesses will no longer have to print a receipt for every sale, according to Radio Prague International.

Finance Minister Alena Schillerová has said the relaunch could bring the state more than 14 billion koruna a year, according to Prague Morning.

The bill also lowers VAT— a consumption tax added to the price of most goods and services — on non-alcoholic drinks in restaurants and cafés from 21 to 12 percent. It also exempts tips from income tax for restaurant and café workers, according to Expats.cz.

Reactions are mixed

Tomáš Prouza, president of the Czech Trade and Tourism Association, said the system would help level the playing field between businesses that pay their taxes and those that don’t.

However, he warned against treating small shops the same as big chains, in comments reported by FCHAIN.

Not everyone thinks the revised system will work.
Miloslav Rut of Moore Czech Republic said the simpler design has a real cost: businesses can no longer instantly confirm a sale was actually logged, according to Expats.cz.

The fine print for small operators

Not every business owner will be affected the same way. Those earning under 1 million koruna a year and making less than the majority can skip live sales reporting and pay a flat 1,500 koruna a month instead, along with standard insurance, according to the Czech Ministry of Finance.

Business owners with only occasional income under 50,000 koruna a year are exempt entirely and remote payments like a bank transfer or an online checkout aren’t covered. The law applies only to transactions made in person.

What comes next

Business owners, tax consultants, lawmakers and workers like Pocová and Tina are waiting to see whether Czechia’s second attempt at this system fares better than its first.