The ongoing debate has been triggered primarily by the fact that the Minister of Finance acknowledged the possibility of an early termination of this extraordinary tax in the past. However, according to his recent statement, he made this option conditional on the extraordinary revenues covering at least a significant part of the government’s extraordinary expenditures in connection with the energy crisis (e.g. expenditures to support companies in energy-intensive sectors, the energy saving tariff, extraordinary compensation for electricity and gas supply to customers, etc.).

However, revenues from the windfall tax were significantly lower than expected. According to the current analysis, the deficit of extraordinary expenditures will reach CZK 35 billion by the end of the year, which was confirmed by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic in its Statement on the continuation of the windfall tax in 2025 dated 23 August 2024. According to Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura, there are no plans to amend the Income Tax Act to shorten the period of validity of the windfall tax.

According to the original plan, the tax will therefore apply to three tax periods, namely the years 2023 to 2025. This fact is confirmed by the Prediction of public budget revenues, in which the revenue from the windfall tax is included in the expected tax revenue not only for 2024 but also for 2025. Given that the windfall tax rate is 60%, which can be an enormous additional tax burden for some companies subject to the tax, many energy companies have seen their share values fall following the decision of the Ministry of Finance.