From 1 January 2026, a change will come into force that will fundamentally affect communication between employers and the state. At first glance, this change may represent an additional administrative burden, but in fact it is a fundamental systemic change, which may bring certain pitfalls to employers in the beginning, but also a number of opportunities to simplify and streamline personnel and payroll activities in the future.

What is Unified Monthly Reporting?

It is an electronic submission that will newly merge most of the employer’s obligations towards state administration bodies: from social insurance through employee records and statistical reporting to income tax from dependent activities. At present, it will not yet include health insurance, but this agenda should also be integrated in the future. Instead of several different reports, everything is concentrated in one document.

The report has three parts:

• summary – basic information about the employer,
• insurance premiums – social insurance data,
• individualized – detailed information about each employee and their employment.

It is always administered for the past month, no later than the 20th day of the following month.

Who is affected by the obligation?

Practically everyone who is in the role of an employer. The law applies not only to companies or institutions, but also to natural persons who employ, for example, only one temporary worker on an agreement. Foreign companies are also obliged if they are taxpayers of income tax from dependent activities in the Czech Republic.

Why is this important?

The new system has the ambition to simplify communication with the state and eliminate duplication in reporting. In practice, however, it also brings a number of question marks:

• time consumption – monthly reporting requires new processes and often software or its modification;
• errors – the system works with the concept of ineffective submission, so a formal defect may lead to the report being considered not filed;
• Sanctions – the law provides for high fines, which can be multiplied by the number of employees.

In addition, it is crucial for international companies to understand the rules for posting employees and when the obligation to report arises in the Czech Republic as well.

What does this mean for employers?

Every employer should take the following steps:

1. Examine your obligations: Does it fall under the definition of an employer under the new law?
2. Review internal processes: How will employee data be collected and validated?
3. Set up a system of records: To be able to fulfill obligations on time and without errors.
4. Prepare for the transitional period: From April to June 2026, a special regime will be in place where additional reports for the first quarter of 2026 will have to be submitted.

Technical and data dimensions

The technical aspect of the implementation of the uniform monthly report is in most cases provided by the payroll information system operator. In practice, however, it often turns out that HR and payroll data are not fully compatible or do not converge in one place. And this can be a major problem.

It is necessary to adjust internal processes so that employee data is unified and ready for the new reporting obligations. It is equally important to define which data will be newly needed. While large employers usually obtain this information as part of the recruitment process or have mechanisms in place for when and how an employee is obliged to report changes to data, this is often not the case for smaller employers. This may lead to the law hitting these employers more severely if processes and data collection are not regulated accordingly.

How to get the most out of it?

A properly set up reporting system can also bring added value – quality data on employees, faster processing of payroll documents, lower error rates in contributions and, with full functionality, also time and cost savings. In practice, this saving may also be reflected in the reduction of the need for work capacity (FTE), which has so far had to be spent on the processing of reports for individual institutions and on the creation of statistical overviews. For many companies, however, this will mean a fundamental change in the way they work with HR and payroll.

Do you need to find your way around?

The Single Monthly Report is not just another box to be fulfilled – it is a systemic intervention that affects every employer in the Czech Republic, even from abroad. And that’s why it’s worth having a partner on hand who can clearly explain the context, point out risks and set up processes so that they are both legally compliant and effective for your company.

If you are dealing with how to prepare for the changes, we will be happy to help you: from a quick consultation to a comprehensive setup of remuneration processes and employee records.

Don’t wait for the first fine. Prepare in time.