Legal Update for Businesses in the Czech Republic: July 2026

Labour Law and HR

The Unified Monthly Report Enters its Second Stage

The key registration provisions of Act No. 323/2025 Coll., on the Unified Monthly Employer Report, have been postponed to 1 July 2026. According to Section 19(1)(a), an employee must be registered in the records no later than the moment they start work (and no earlier than 8 days before). The employer itself must register 2 working days before the first employee starts, according to Section 17(1). The previous logic of "start work, then do the paperwork within 8 days" thus ends for new hires.

The Act allows for so-called partial registration — basic identification data is sufficient before the start date, with the rest to be provided within 8 days. This relief does not apply to foreign employees. The penalties are not symbolic: failure to register an employee is subject to a fine of up to CZK 100,000 under Section 28, while the upper limit for the fine for failing to file the report is CZK 5,000 × the number of registered employees. The deadline for the report itself remains the 20th day of the following month.

Pay Transparency: What Applies Now and What's to Come

The deadline for the transposition of Directive (EU) 2023/970 expired on 7 June 2026, and the Czech Republic has failed to meet it. An amendment to the Labour Code was not published until the end of March 2026, with a proposed effective date of 1 January 2027; reporting on pay gaps is not expected until 2028.

The Directive does not have horizontal direct effect, meaning a private employer is not directly bound by it. However, this does not mean that no obligations regarding pay transparency apply today. Since 1 June 2025, Section 346a of the Labour Code has prohibited employers from restricting employees in how they handle information about the amount and structure of their own salary, wage, or remuneration from an agreement. Pay secrecy clauses are therefore already unlawful, and the Labour Inspectorate can impose a fine of up to CZK 400,000 for them under Section 24(1)(e) of the Act on Labour Inspection. Conversely, it is still possible to restrict employees from sharing information about the wages of other employees.

The transposition of the Directive will build on this foundation, introducing transparency during recruitment, employees' rights to information, and reporting on pay gaps. The pay structure that the amendment will require cannot be built in three months — it makes sense to use the remaining months of 2026 to audit pay bands.

Construction Law and Development Projects

Decree No. 97/2026 Coll., effective from 1 July 2026, amends Decree No. 146/2024 Coll., on Construction Requirements, in more than one hundred points. It supplements the transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/1275 on the energy performance of buildings (cabling and infrastructure for recharging) and clarifies the rules for setback distances and technical infrastructure constructions. For documentation for a building permit prepared before this date, the previous rules apply — the decisive factor is when the documentation was prepared, not when the application was submitted.

At the same time, the countdown for the transitional period is running: according to Section 329 of the Building Act, documentation prepared under the previous regulations can be submitted as part of an application filed by 30 June 2027. Beware of two common misconceptions: the application is still filed under the new Building Act, and the Act does not make the exception conditional on the design work having started before 1 July 2024.

Taxes, Accounting, and Corporate Agenda

The VAT return and the VAT control statement for July 2026 are due by Tuesday, 25 August 2026 (Section 136(4) of the Tax Code and Section 101e of the VAT Act). Note the shift for the previous period: 25 July 2026 fell on a Saturday, so the deadline was moved to Monday, 27 July.

Regarding the categorisation of accounting entities under Section 1b of the Act on Accounting (last amended by Act No. 316/2025 Coll.), an entity falls into a category if it does not exceed at least two of the three thresholds — assets, turnover, and the average number of employees. The amount of assets alone is not decisive. A mandatory audit applies to medium-sized and large accounting entities under Section 20.

Regarding the remuneration of executive directors, the thesis of the invalidity of an employment contract for business management has been overturned (Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, 31 Cdo 4831/2017). The real risk lies in Section 59 of the Business Corporations Act: without approval by the supreme body, the executive service agreement does not become effective, and if no remuneration is agreed therein, the performance of the function is unpaid. This is a typical finding in due diligence.

Cybersecurity

Act No. 264/2025 Coll., on Cybersecurity (transposition of the NIS2 Directive) has been in effect since 1 November 2025. The sixty-day deadline for reporting a regulated service under Section 6 expired for most entities on 31 December 2025. Therefore, in mid-2026, it is not the self-identification period that is running, but the one-year period from the delivery of the registration decision to implement security measures under Section 13(4). The decisive factor is always the individual date of delivery of the decision, not the end of the calendar year: for a decision delivered on 15 January 2026, the deadline runs until 15 January 2027.

Two things are often underestimated. The sixty-day period runs anew whenever an entity meets the criteria again — through growth, acquisition, or a change in service. And Section 13(5) requires the inclusion of security measure requirements in contracts with suppliers — so it's not just about purchasing technology, but about a review of supplier documentation.

Other Changes from 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026, the minimum monthly social security deposit for a primary self-employed person (OSVČ) decreased from CZK 5,720 to CZK 5,005; in the lump-sum tax regime, the deposit in the first band decreased from CZK 9,984 to CZK 9,162. The amount of the deposits themselves is not changed retroactively from January. However, the cancellation of this year's increase in the minimum assessment base will be reflected in the final insurance premium for the entire year 2026, and under certain conditions, it is possible to request a refund of part of the previously paid deposits or to have them credited against future deposits. Carriers now have the obligation to equip vans from 2.5 t to 3.5 t with a second-generation smart tachograph if they operate in international transport or cabotage.

Operational Calendar

Final Summary

July 2026 was not a month of major codifications, but a month of changes that alter the operational sequence of steps — and these are the easiest to overlook. Employees must be registered before they start working. Documentation for building permits is governed by the new version of the decree if created after 1 July. And the deadline for implementing cybersecurity measures is shortening every month, without any formal notice.

For management, there are three takeaways: an EU directive does not create an obligation on its own, but preparation takes longer than the legislative process; transitional provisions are a source of silent deadlines; and new penalty frameworks based on the number of employees or turnover have a different economic impact than flat-rate fines.

The ARROWS law firm combines labour law, corporate agenda, construction law, taxes, and IT compliance into a single perspective — so that the client receives not five separate opinions, but a single decision that makes business sense. Thanks to the ARROWS International network, we also coordinate cases with a cross-border element; for professional liability purposes, the ARROWS law firm is insured up to a limit of CZK 350,000,000.

If you want to be sure that none of these deadlines catches you unprepared, contact the ARROWS law firm at consultation@arws.cz — we will review your company's specific situation with you and propose the next steps.