Significant changes await employee benefits from 2027. The new legislation, which forms part of the Act on the Registration of Sales and related amendments to tax legislation, was signed by the President of the Czech Republic on 17 September 2026 and is now awaiting publication in the Collection of Laws. Although the main focus of the Act is the new system for the registration of sales, it also introduces significant amendments to the Income Taxes Act affecting employee benefits. These changes are expected to take effect from 1 January 2027.
In 2026, non-monetary leisure benefits, such as sports, culture, recreation, books or the use of educational or recreational facilities, are exempt for employees up to a common annual limit of half of the average wage.
From 2027, this structure is to change significantly. The common limit for leisure benefits will be abolished and individual types of supplies will have a different tax regime.
For example, the use of educational, recreational or sports facilities or contributions to books will no longer be subject to the current common financial limit. On the other hand, a separate limit of CZK 20,000 per tax period will be introduced for the provision of recreation or a tour.
In practice, it will be much more important to correctly determine what kind of benefit it really is.
Recreation may be one of the areas of interpretation of the new arrangement.
The law distinguishes between “the use of a recreational facility” and “the provision of a recreational facility or a tour”. While the use of a recreational facility will not be subject to a separate financial limit, the provision of a recreational facility or a trip will be subject to a limit of CZK 20,000 per year.
The distinction can be relatively easy, for example, when using a company holiday cottage on the one hand and buying a travel agency trip on the other. In practice, however, less clear situations may arise – for example, in hotel stays, wellness services or the use of the facilities of the employer’s contractual partners.
The ambiguity of this distinction has already been discussed in the comment procedure on the draft law. The correct classification of a particular supply may thus have a direct impact on its tax regime.
A completely new category will be contributions to selected social services. Employers will be able to support, for example, personal assistance, care services, emergency or relief services, early care or services of day care centres and day care centres under set conditions.
The new regulation thus opens up space for benefits focused, for example, on employees caring for aging parents, a child with a disability or another person who needs help.
However, this does not mean that it will be possible to give a tax advantage to any privately negotiated assistance. The Income Tax Act in this area is a follow-up to Act No. 108/2006 Coll., on Social Services. Therefore, it must be an appropriate type of social service provided on the basis of an authorization under this Act and other legal conditions must be met.
It will therefore be important for the employer not only to correctly determine the type of service provided, but also to assess whether the conditions for its tax advantage are met.
An important novelty is also a separate tax regime for selected employer supplies in the area of prevention and care for the health of employees.
Unlike ordinary health benefits, it will not be an exempt income of an employee under Section 6 (9) of the Income Tax Act. 9 (d) of the Income Tax Act. Selected benefits provided by the employer as part of employee health care will not be considered as income from dependent activity at all under the new regulation.
The law sets out a specific area of supported prevention. This will include, for example, above-standard preventive check-ups, diabetic screening for risk groups, cardiovascular risk testing, selected oncological screenings or some vaccinations not covered by public health insurance.
If the specified conditions are met, these supplies will not be subject to income tax or social and health insurance contributions of the employee. At the same time, if the statutory conditions are met, they may represent a tax-deductible expense of the employer.
This can be an interesting opportunity for employers to expand health promotion and prevention programs in a way that is attractive to employees and at the same time cost-effective for the company.
From the point of view of employers, the main change will not only be the increase or abolition of certain limits. A new distinction between individual types of supplies and the conditions under which their tax advantage can be used may be more important.
The new rules may thus be a suitable impulse for a revision of the existing system of benefits – not only from the point of view of their tax regime, but also from the point of view of their actual use, administrative set-up and value for employees.
In practice, questions may arise, especially when it comes to the correct classification of individual benefits, the setting of prevention programmes or the assessment of the conditions of new social benefits. It is therefore appropriate to pay attention to these areas before the new regulation comes into effect.
It is not necessarily an increase in the benefit budget. The new rules may be an opportunity to use existing funds more efficiently and at the same time offer employees benefits that better match their real needs.
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