Tuesday, 31 January 2023, is the last day to file a real estate tax return for the 2023 tax year. The tax return reports on the situation as of 1 January 2023. The deadline should not be missed by those who acquired ownership of land, a taxable building, residential or commercial unit during 2022 or by landowners who obtained a building permit for a new taxable building in 2022. However, you should also not forget to file a tax return or notify the Tax Office when you sell, donate or otherwise dispose of the property.
For the current year, the legislative characteristics of the real estate tax remain basically unchanged. However, at the turn of the year, the Financial Administration prepared and launched several interesting practical tools for taxpayers of this tax within the Tax Information Box Plus (DIS+), which may facilitate the preparation of tax returns. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance is preparing an amendment to the Real Estate Tax Act, which should come into force next year.
Checking data in the tax return against information from the land registry
The Financial Administration has launched in trial mode the function of verifying data from the tax return using data in the land registry. The function is currently available to users of the Tax Information Box Plus (DIS+) and makes it possible to verify a number of data, e.g. the land area or the amount of the co-ownership share. You can find it before sending your tax return to the Tax Office in the “Možnosti pro ukončení” section (Completion options section). This tool does not guarantee the complete accuracy of the tax return (many of the data affecting the tax amount are not recorded in the land registry). Still, it does provide a basic check of the completeness of the declared real estate.
“Partial” tax returns in digital form
For technical reasons, it is not possible to file partial real estate tax returns electronically. Should a change occur that would lead to the obligation to file a tax return, a taxpayer registered in DIS+ via the MOJE daně portal (My Taxes) can now use the option of pre-filling data based on the last tax return from the records of the relevant Tax Office. When using this service, it is sufficient to reflect the changes that have occurred compared to the previous period in the pre-filled data of the regular return, and it is not necessary to list all immovable property in the form.
Discontinuation of the free “tax postal order”
If you were used to paying your real estate tax by postal order, its use is newly charged according to the current price list of the Czech Post for 2023. However, you can pay the tax at no additional cost via SIPO (but you must notify the tax authority by 31 January), request payment details to be sent by email (you must submit your request by 15 March) or look up payment details on the MOJE daně portal.
Planned changes from 1 January 2024
Last but not least, we would like to inform you about the planned changes. At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance prepared and sent for an external comment procedure a draft of an amendment to the Real Estate Tax Act, which contains a number of minor changes. For example, the draft intends to clarify the definition of a building plot, to introduce changes in the exemption of land and buildings or taxation of the paved surface of land regardless of the type of land registered in the land registry (currently, the paved surface can be taxed only in the case of land registered as “other area” or “built-up area” in the land registry). Most of the changes are proposed to take effect on 1 January 2024. We will keep you informed about future developments of this amendment.
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