Blog
OverviewOverview · 19 min read ·

Airbnb in Czechia, legally: the complete map of a host's obligations

Your first booking has arrived — and with it the question of what the state, the municipality and the police actually want from you. This article is a map: on a single page you go through every obligation of short-term accommodation, and for each one you learn where it is arranged, how much it costs, by when and what you risk. The details are in separate guides.

Most items you settle once and for all. But almost nothing can be skipped — and registration with the Foreign Police (cizinecká policie) has a deadline of up to 30 days, so you cannot wait for your first guest.

In brief
WhoAnyone who provides accommodation to guests for payment by the night or the week — even with a single flat.
WhereThe Trade Licensing Office (živnostenský úřad), the municipal office, the Foreign Police (UbyPort), the tax office, the municipality or a waste collection company.
How muchNotification of trade CZK 1,000, CZK 800 on the electronic form; notification of business premises free of charge; waste collection in Prague's municipal system CZK 4,377 to 6,687 a year excluding VAT (the price list applies until 31 December 2026), with a commercial collection company from CZK 3,163 a year including VAT for mixed waste alone.
How longThe trade authorisation arises on the day of notification, the extract within 5 working days; registration of the facility with the police up to 30 days.
DeadlineA foreign national within 3 working days; notification for the stay fee according to the municipal decree (Prague 30 days from the start of the activity, elsewhere most often 15 days); immovable property tax by 31 January.
What you riskUnmarked business premises up to CZK 100,000 (§ 62 of Act no. 455/1991 Coll.), an unreported foreign national or a defective house book up to CZK 50,000 (§ 157 (8) of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.), a missing waste contract up to CZK 1,000,000 (§ 118 of Act no. 541/2020 Coll.), failure to notify for the stay fee up to CZK 500,000 (§ 247a of the Tax Code).

What to do

What to do
  • Notify an unqualified trade, field no. 55 „Ubytovací služby“ (accommodation services), at the Trade Licensing Office or at rzp.gov.cz.
  • Notify the flat as business premises in advance and mark it with a sign; if you are not the owner, have their consent.
  • Start using the data box (datová schránka) that the state sets up for you on its own.
  • Ask the Foreign Police to register your facility in UbyPort — up to 30 days.
  • Notify the municipality that you are a payer of the stay fee, as its decree requires.
  • Set up the guest register (evidenční kniha) for the municipality and the house book (domovní kniha) for the police — both for 6 years.
  • Notify the start of your activity to the Social Security Administration (ČSSZ) and your health insurer.
  • Within 15 days of your first commission, register as an identified person and enter your tax ID in the platforms.
  • Conclude a written waste collection contract before any waste arises.
  • File a partial return for immovable property tax by 31 January.
  • Destroy guest data once the statutory periods have elapsed.

Order of play: deal with the police registration and the trade licence 4 to 6 weeks before your first guest, and with the business premises, the signs, the waste and the stay fee notification 2 to 3 weeks ahead.

Why this is not „just letting a flat“

Short-term accommodation of tourists is not a residential lease. Legally it is an accommodation service — the General Financial Directorate places it in code 55 of the CZ-CPA classification: days and weeks, cleaning and other services, an offer through a platform. A lease, by contrast, is the passive handing over of a flat for months and years. The difference changes everything: you need a trade licence, you are taxed under § 7 instead of § 9, you report guests to the police and to the municipality, and you keep records.

One exception is routinely overlooked, though: the Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals also treats a relationship based on a lease or sublease contract as accommodation (§ 99 (2) of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.). Anyone who lets a flat to a foreign national for payment — including an EU citizen — is a provider of accommodation: they report them to the police within 3 working days and keep a house book. A long-term lease needs neither a trade licence, nor business premises, nor the stay fee.

The obligations step by step

  1. 1TRADE LICENCE Accommodation services are an unqualified trade, field of activity no. 55 „Ubytovací služby“ — no exams, no practice required. You notify it at any Trade Licensing Office, at a Czech POINT counter (+CZK 50) or through the unified registration form at rzp.gov.cz. The fee is CZK 1,000; on the electronic form the office reduces it by 20 % to CZK 800. The authorisation arises on the day of notification, the extract within 5 working days. The same form notifies the start of your activity to the ČSSZ and to your health insurer; since 2024 you no longer register for income tax. → How to set up a trade licence for accommodation: step by step in one afternoon and article „Trade licence or s.r.o.? Decide in 10 minutes“
  1. 1BUSINESS PREMISES AND THE SIGN The flat in which you provide accommodation is business premises. You notify the start of your activity there to the Trade Licensing Office in advance and free of charge (§ 17 (3)) — and if you are not the owner of the flat, under the same provision you may do business there only with their consent. The premises must be permanently and visibly marked from the outside with your first name and surname (or company name) and your IČO, and for services to consumers also with the name of the responsible person and the opening hours. For an accommodation facility the law also asks for the category and class (§ 17 (8) (c)) — office practice differs, and if the Trade Licensing Office requires it, add it. Premises that are unmarked or unnotified risk up to CZK 100,000. → Business premises signage: the sign an inspection looks for first
  1. 1DATA BOX A self-employed person and a company alike get one from the Digital and Information Agency free of charge and without delay after being entered in the register — you do not apply for it and you cannot switch it off. If you do not log in within 10 days of a message being delivered, it is deemed served on the last day of that period, with the same effects as a letter into your own hands. And anyone who has a data box by operation of law must make form filings to the tax office electronically only (§ 72 (6) of the Tax Code). → Data box: 20 minutes that save you years of trudging between offices
  1. 1THE FOREIGN POLICE AND UBYPORT You report every foreign guest — including EU citizens — to the Foreign Police within 3 working days of them being accommodated (§ 102 (1) of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.), using the UbyPort application at ubyport.pcr.cz/UbyPort. First, however, your accommodation facility has to be registered: in the application you fill in the form „Žádost o registraci nového ubytovacího zařízení“ (application to register a new accommodation facility) and send the generated PDF through data box ybndqw9, by signed e-mail to reguby@pcr.cz or by post to Ředitelství služby cizinecké policie, Olšanská 2, 130 51 Praha 3. The police state a deadline of up to 30 days under the Administrative Code; the protocol with your login details arrives in your data box. The IDUB is the facility identifier (12 to 14 digits) — it is neither a username nor a password. Until the police set up your access, you meet the obligation the old way: you submit the registration form, filled in and signed by the guest, to the foreign police department of the regional directorate for the address of the flat (§ 102 (2) and (3)). Failing to report a foreign national's accommodation, and a missing or badly kept house book, risk a fine of up to CZK 50,000 (§ 157 (8) (b) of the same Act).
Apply for the registration as the very first item on the list — it is the only one with an official deadline of up to 30 days.

→ UbyPort without the stress: how to report foreign guests to the foreign police correctly

  1. 1THE STAY FEE You collect it from guests and remit it to the municipality; the rate, the deadlines and the form of the report are set by your municipality's decree. The ceiling is CZK 50 per person and per commenced day of the stay, the day of arrival does not count towards the base, and only a stay of up to 60 consecutive calendar days with one provider is subject to the fee. Exempt are, among others, persons under 18, the blind and holders of a ZTP/P card. Prague has a rate of CZK 50, notification within 30 days of the start of the activity and remittance by the 15th day of the following month; it is administered by the city district office. Most other cities allow 15 days for the notification, and remittance is most often quarterly (Olomouc, Ostrava, Český Krumlov), in some places monthly or half-yearly (Liberec depending on the number of beds, České Budějovice half-yearly). The rates differ too: Olomouc and Liberec CZK 50, Ostrava CZK 45, Hradec Králové CZK 40, Plzeň CZK 35 (as of September 2026 — check the decree in force in your municipality). The municipal deadline runs from the start of the activity, not from your first guest.
Example · The fee for one stay in a municipality with a rate of CZK 50
2 adults × 3 nights × CZK 50CZK 300
2 children (8 and 15)CZK 0 (exempt, reason goes in the register)
Total to remit to the municipalityCZK 300
→ Stay fee: every municipality sets it differently — and you are the one collecting it
  1. 1TWO REGISTERS, NOT ONE The guest register for the municipality (§ 3g of Act no. 565/1990 Coll.) contains the day the stay begins and ends, the first name, surname and address of the place of registration, the date of birth, the number and type of identity document, and the amount of the fee collected or the reason for exemption. The house book for the Foreign Police (§ 101 of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.) covers the scope of the registration form plus the beginning and end of the accommodation. They are two separate obligations, even though they can be met from a single set of data; you keep both for 6 years from the last entry. A foreign national must fill in and sign the form in person (children under 15 do not) and on request you issue them a confirmation of accommodation (§ 100 (e) of the same Act). Paper is legal, and so is electronic record keeping — but it must guarantee the permanence and chronological order of the entries. → The guest register: what must not be missing (and what does not belong there)
  1. 1INCOME TAX AND INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS Income from an accommodation service falls under § 7 (1) (b) of the Income Tax Act. You claim actual expenses, or a flat rate of 60 %, but no more than CZK 1,200,000 — so the full effect lasts up to income of CZK 2,000,000. Without a trade licence the flat rate drops to 40 % with a maximum of CZK 800,000; a lease under § 9 gets only 30 % and CZK 600,000. A third route is the lump-sum tax, which registration as an identified person for VAT does not rule out; the notice of entry is filed by 10 January. You file your return within 3 months of the end of the year, within 4 months when filing electronically and within 6 months with a tax adviser (§ 136 of the Tax Code; if the end falls on a weekend or a public holiday, it moves to the nearest working day) — for 2026 that means 1 April 2027, 3 May 2027 and 1 July 2027 respectively; with a data box by operation of law, electronically only. Anyone who started their activity after 31 December 2024 and had not been in business for the previous 5 years pays no pension insurance advances for the first two years — the contributions themselves are settled after the end of the year according to the Overview. → How to tax Airbnb income: § 7, not § 9 — and why it matters (the lump-sum tax bands and the 2026 minimum advances are there too)
  1. 1VAT ON PLATFORM COMMISSIONS Both Airbnb and Booking invoice you their commission from abroad, and by receiving it a Czech non-payer becomes an identified person — on the very day the service is received (§ 6h of Act no. 235/2004 Coll.). Within 15 days you file the registration application, you declare 21 % on the commission and you send the return within 25 days of the end of the month; the deadline cannot be extended, the filing is electronic only and only for the months in which a commission arrived. An identified person files no control statement and has no right of deduction, so this VAT is a pure cost; towards Czech customers you remain a non-payer. And the base will grow: Airbnb is moving to a single host fee of 15.5 % of the booking subtotal (14–16 % for some hosts) and is giving the European Economic Area until 13 October 2026 to adjust prices. Above a turnover of CZK 2,000,000 in a calendar year you become a VAT payer as of 1 January of the following year, and above CZK 2,536,500 on the day after you cross it; your accommodation service then falls into the reduced rate of 12 %, while the platform commission continues to carry 21 %.
Immediately after registering, enter your tax ID (the form is CZ + IČO, for a natural person CZ + birth number; registration does not change it, it only enters you in VIES) into your Airbnb profile and into the Booking extranet — in Airbnb under Menu → Account settings → Taxes, in Booking under Extranet → Finance → Finance settings → VAT details. Without it the platform will charge you 21 % Czech VAT, which as an identified person you cannot deduct, and under the prevailing interpretation that does not extinguish your duty to declare the tax in Czechia.

→ Identified person: the VAT on Airbnb and Booking commissions almost nobody knows about and article „The 2 million limit: when you become a VAT payer and what it does to your prices“

  1. 1WASTE As an entrepreneur you are the producer of the waste and its handover must be secured by a written contract before the waste arises (§ 15 (2) (c) of Act no. 541/2020 Coll.); you may not use the bin paid for out of the residents' fee. There are two routes: a contract with the municipality on joining the municipal system (§ 62 (2)), or a contract with a collection company. If you hand over all your municipal waste to the municipal system, you do not even keep running records of it. The contract covers sorted fractions too. In Prague's municipal system a legal set of bins costs CZK 4,377 to 6,687 a year excluding VAT (the price list applies until 31 December 2026), with a commercial collection company from CZK 3,163 a year including VAT for mixed waste alone. A missing contract risks up to CZK 1,000,000, using the municipal system without a contract up to CZK 10,000,000. → Municipal waste: the owners' association bins are not yours
  1. 1IMMOVABLE PROPERTY TAX A flat offered for accommodation services serves business purposes and is therefore taxed at the rate for other kinds of business, CZK 18.00/m² (§ 11 (1) (h) of Act no. 338/1992 Coll.), instead of CZK 3.50/m² multiplied by the coefficient for the size of the municipality. The base is the adjusted floor area: for a unit that includes a share in the land, the floor area × 1.22, otherwise × 1.20 (§ 10 (3) of the same Act). You report the change in a partial return by 31 January. According to the General Financial Directorate, a flat demonstrably offered on a portal serves business purposes even if it is not occupied on 1 January.
Example · Flat BYT1, 60 m², a unit in an apartment building in Vinohrady with a share in the land
Tax base: 60 m² × 1.2273.2 → 74 m²
As a flat for housing: 74 × 3.50 × 4.5 (Prague)CZK 1,166
As a flat for accommodation services: 74 × 18.00CZK 1,332
DifferenceCZK 166 a year
  1. 1GUEST DATA You process guest data in order to comply with a legal obligation (Article 6 (1) (c) of the General Data Protection Regulation) — you need no consent either for the records or for the reporting. But you must protect the data, use it for nothing else and destroy it six years after the last entry — unless you happen to be holding it on another title, such as an accounting document; for a newsletter, a legal obligation is no longer enough. → GDPR and guest data: what you may, what you must and what is forbidden and article „EU sanctions lists: the duty 99 % of hosts have never heard of“

What is coming

The European Union regulation on data sharing for short-term rentals (no. 2024/1028) has applied since 20 May 2026, but it creates obligations for hosts only where a member state has introduced a registration procedure — and the Ministry for Regional Development states that the Czech Republic does not apply one yet. The amendment to Act no. 159/1999 Coll. that is to introduce the eTurista register is sitting in the Chamber of Deputies before its first reading, with a negative opinion from the government of 9 March 2026; the ministry talks about a launch from 2027. The proposal envisages a registration number in the listing, entry of the guest within 24 hours and a fee ceiling of CZK 100.

A registration number is not required today. Websites claiming that eTurista is already running are reprinting the text of a bill that has not been passed.

The most common mistakes and myths

Frequently asked questions

I only host over the summer, a few weeks a year. Do I still need a trade licence?
Yes. A trade is a systematic activity carried on for profit, and a flat let repeatedly is one even in seasonal operation.
What if I have not been doing some of this for years?
It can be put right, and that is cheaper than waiting for an inspection. The trade licence and the business premises can be notified at any time, for the fee you pay the amount owed (the municipality may increase it up to twice the difference) and for taxes you file a supplementary return.
Do I report and record Czech guests too?
Not to the Foreign Police — they only want foreign nationals. But you enter every guest to whom you provide a paid stay in the guest register; you then remit the fee for those who are not registered as residents in the municipality — including a Czech from another town.
How Ubyo helps
Bookings are downloaded from the platforms, guests register themselves through a link, the UbyPort report goes out automatically, the stay fee is calculated according to your municipality's settings, the guest register keeps itself and the documents for VAT on commissions are generated in a couple of clicks. → Online check-in and the guest portal: fewer messages, happier guests
Legal framework and sources (7)
  • Act no. 455/1991 Coll., on trade licensing, § 17 and Annex no. 4 — business premises and the sign
  • Act no. 326/1999 Coll., on the residence of foreign nationals, § 99 to 103 — provider of accommodation, reporting, house book
  • Act no. 565/1990 Coll., on local fees, § 3a to 3g — the stay fee and the guest register
  • Act no. 586/1992 Coll., on income taxes, § 7 — taxation and flat-rate expenses
  • Act no. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax, § 6h and § 97 — identified person
  • Act no. 541/2020 Coll., on waste, § 15 and § 62 — the waste contract
  • ubyport.pcr.cz/UbyPort — registration of the facility and reporting of guests

Updated: 5 September 2026, verified against the sources listed above. This is informational text, not legal or tax advice — consult a professional about your specific situation.

ubyo
Blog
OverviewOverview · 19 min read ·

Airbnb in Czechia, legally: the complete map of a host's obligations

Your first booking has arrived — and with it the question of what the state, the municipality and the police actually want from you. This article is a map: on a single page you go through every obligation of short-term accommodation, and for each one you learn where it is arranged, how much it costs, by when and what you risk. The details are in separate guides.

Most items you settle once and for all. But almost nothing can be skipped — and registration with the Foreign Police (cizinecká policie) has a deadline of up to 30 days, so you cannot wait for your first guest.

In brief
WhoAnyone who provides accommodation to guests for payment by the night or the week — even with a single flat.
WhereThe Trade Licensing Office (živnostenský úřad), the municipal office, the Foreign Police (UbyPort), the tax office, the municipality or a waste collection company.
How muchNotification of trade CZK 1,000, CZK 800 on the electronic form; notification of business premises free of charge; waste collection in Prague's municipal system CZK 4,377 to 6,687 a year excluding VAT (the price list applies until 31 December 2026), with a commercial collection company from CZK 3,163 a year including VAT for mixed waste alone.
How longThe trade authorisation arises on the day of notification, the extract within 5 working days; registration of the facility with the police up to 30 days.
DeadlineA foreign national within 3 working days; notification for the stay fee according to the municipal decree (Prague 30 days from the start of the activity, elsewhere most often 15 days); immovable property tax by 31 January.
What you riskUnmarked business premises up to CZK 100,000 (§ 62 of Act no. 455/1991 Coll.), an unreported foreign national or a defective house book up to CZK 50,000 (§ 157 (8) of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.), a missing waste contract up to CZK 1,000,000 (§ 118 of Act no. 541/2020 Coll.), failure to notify for the stay fee up to CZK 500,000 (§ 247a of the Tax Code).

What to do

What to do
  • Notify an unqualified trade, field no. 55 „Ubytovací služby“ (accommodation services), at the Trade Licensing Office or at rzp.gov.cz.
  • Notify the flat as business premises in advance and mark it with a sign; if you are not the owner, have their consent.
  • Start using the data box (datová schránka) that the state sets up for you on its own.
  • Ask the Foreign Police to register your facility in UbyPort — up to 30 days.
  • Notify the municipality that you are a payer of the stay fee, as its decree requires.
  • Set up the guest register (evidenční kniha) for the municipality and the house book (domovní kniha) for the police — both for 6 years.
  • Notify the start of your activity to the Social Security Administration (ČSSZ) and your health insurer.
  • Within 15 days of your first commission, register as an identified person and enter your tax ID in the platforms.
  • Conclude a written waste collection contract before any waste arises.
  • File a partial return for immovable property tax by 31 January.
  • Destroy guest data once the statutory periods have elapsed.

Order of play: deal with the police registration and the trade licence 4 to 6 weeks before your first guest, and with the business premises, the signs, the waste and the stay fee notification 2 to 3 weeks ahead.

Why this is not „just letting a flat“

Short-term accommodation of tourists is not a residential lease. Legally it is an accommodation service — the General Financial Directorate places it in code 55 of the CZ-CPA classification: days and weeks, cleaning and other services, an offer through a platform. A lease, by contrast, is the passive handing over of a flat for months and years. The difference changes everything: you need a trade licence, you are taxed under § 7 instead of § 9, you report guests to the police and to the municipality, and you keep records.

One exception is routinely overlooked, though: the Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals also treats a relationship based on a lease or sublease contract as accommodation (§ 99 (2) of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.). Anyone who lets a flat to a foreign national for payment — including an EU citizen — is a provider of accommodation: they report them to the police within 3 working days and keep a house book. A long-term lease needs neither a trade licence, nor business premises, nor the stay fee.

The obligations step by step

  1. 1TRADE LICENCE Accommodation services are an unqualified trade, field of activity no. 55 „Ubytovací služby“ — no exams, no practice required. You notify it at any Trade Licensing Office, at a Czech POINT counter (+CZK 50) or through the unified registration form at rzp.gov.cz. The fee is CZK 1,000; on the electronic form the office reduces it by 20 % to CZK 800. The authorisation arises on the day of notification, the extract within 5 working days. The same form notifies the start of your activity to the ČSSZ and to your health insurer; since 2024 you no longer register for income tax. → How to set up a trade licence for accommodation: step by step in one afternoon and article „Trade licence or s.r.o.? Decide in 10 minutes“
  1. 1BUSINESS PREMISES AND THE SIGN The flat in which you provide accommodation is business premises. You notify the start of your activity there to the Trade Licensing Office in advance and free of charge (§ 17 (3)) — and if you are not the owner of the flat, under the same provision you may do business there only with their consent. The premises must be permanently and visibly marked from the outside with your first name and surname (or company name) and your IČO, and for services to consumers also with the name of the responsible person and the opening hours. For an accommodation facility the law also asks for the category and class (§ 17 (8) (c)) — office practice differs, and if the Trade Licensing Office requires it, add it. Premises that are unmarked or unnotified risk up to CZK 100,000. → Business premises signage: the sign an inspection looks for first
  1. 1DATA BOX A self-employed person and a company alike get one from the Digital and Information Agency free of charge and without delay after being entered in the register — you do not apply for it and you cannot switch it off. If you do not log in within 10 days of a message being delivered, it is deemed served on the last day of that period, with the same effects as a letter into your own hands. And anyone who has a data box by operation of law must make form filings to the tax office electronically only (§ 72 (6) of the Tax Code). → Data box: 20 minutes that save you years of trudging between offices
  1. 1THE FOREIGN POLICE AND UBYPORT You report every foreign guest — including EU citizens — to the Foreign Police within 3 working days of them being accommodated (§ 102 (1) of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.), using the UbyPort application at ubyport.pcr.cz/UbyPort. First, however, your accommodation facility has to be registered: in the application you fill in the form „Žádost o registraci nového ubytovacího zařízení“ (application to register a new accommodation facility) and send the generated PDF through data box ybndqw9, by signed e-mail to reguby@pcr.cz or by post to Ředitelství služby cizinecké policie, Olšanská 2, 130 51 Praha 3. The police state a deadline of up to 30 days under the Administrative Code; the protocol with your login details arrives in your data box. The IDUB is the facility identifier (12 to 14 digits) — it is neither a username nor a password. Until the police set up your access, you meet the obligation the old way: you submit the registration form, filled in and signed by the guest, to the foreign police department of the regional directorate for the address of the flat (§ 102 (2) and (3)). Failing to report a foreign national's accommodation, and a missing or badly kept house book, risk a fine of up to CZK 50,000 (§ 157 (8) (b) of the same Act).
Apply for the registration as the very first item on the list — it is the only one with an official deadline of up to 30 days.

→ UbyPort without the stress: how to report foreign guests to the foreign police correctly

  1. 1THE STAY FEE You collect it from guests and remit it to the municipality; the rate, the deadlines and the form of the report are set by your municipality's decree. The ceiling is CZK 50 per person and per commenced day of the stay, the day of arrival does not count towards the base, and only a stay of up to 60 consecutive calendar days with one provider is subject to the fee. Exempt are, among others, persons under 18, the blind and holders of a ZTP/P card. Prague has a rate of CZK 50, notification within 30 days of the start of the activity and remittance by the 15th day of the following month; it is administered by the city district office. Most other cities allow 15 days for the notification, and remittance is most often quarterly (Olomouc, Ostrava, Český Krumlov), in some places monthly or half-yearly (Liberec depending on the number of beds, České Budějovice half-yearly). The rates differ too: Olomouc and Liberec CZK 50, Ostrava CZK 45, Hradec Králové CZK 40, Plzeň CZK 35 (as of September 2026 — check the decree in force in your municipality). The municipal deadline runs from the start of the activity, not from your first guest.
Example · The fee for one stay in a municipality with a rate of CZK 50
2 adults × 3 nights × CZK 50CZK 300
2 children (8 and 15)CZK 0 (exempt, reason goes in the register)
Total to remit to the municipalityCZK 300
→ Stay fee: every municipality sets it differently — and you are the one collecting it
  1. 1TWO REGISTERS, NOT ONE The guest register for the municipality (§ 3g of Act no. 565/1990 Coll.) contains the day the stay begins and ends, the first name, surname and address of the place of registration, the date of birth, the number and type of identity document, and the amount of the fee collected or the reason for exemption. The house book for the Foreign Police (§ 101 of Act no. 326/1999 Coll.) covers the scope of the registration form plus the beginning and end of the accommodation. They are two separate obligations, even though they can be met from a single set of data; you keep both for 6 years from the last entry. A foreign national must fill in and sign the form in person (children under 15 do not) and on request you issue them a confirmation of accommodation (§ 100 (e) of the same Act). Paper is legal, and so is electronic record keeping — but it must guarantee the permanence and chronological order of the entries. → The guest register: what must not be missing (and what does not belong there)
  1. 1INCOME TAX AND INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS Income from an accommodation service falls under § 7 (1) (b) of the Income Tax Act. You claim actual expenses, or a flat rate of 60 %, but no more than CZK 1,200,000 — so the full effect lasts up to income of CZK 2,000,000. Without a trade licence the flat rate drops to 40 % with a maximum of CZK 800,000; a lease under § 9 gets only 30 % and CZK 600,000. A third route is the lump-sum tax, which registration as an identified person for VAT does not rule out; the notice of entry is filed by 10 January. You file your return within 3 months of the end of the year, within 4 months when filing electronically and within 6 months with a tax adviser (§ 136 of the Tax Code; if the end falls on a weekend or a public holiday, it moves to the nearest working day) — for 2026 that means 1 April 2027, 3 May 2027 and 1 July 2027 respectively; with a data box by operation of law, electronically only. Anyone who started their activity after 31 December 2024 and had not been in business for the previous 5 years pays no pension insurance advances for the first two years — the contributions themselves are settled after the end of the year according to the Overview. → How to tax Airbnb income: § 7, not § 9 — and why it matters (the lump-sum tax bands and the 2026 minimum advances are there too)
  1. 1VAT ON PLATFORM COMMISSIONS Both Airbnb and Booking invoice you their commission from abroad, and by receiving it a Czech non-payer becomes an identified person — on the very day the service is received (§ 6h of Act no. 235/2004 Coll.). Within 15 days you file the registration application, you declare 21 % on the commission and you send the return within 25 days of the end of the month; the deadline cannot be extended, the filing is electronic only and only for the months in which a commission arrived. An identified person files no control statement and has no right of deduction, so this VAT is a pure cost; towards Czech customers you remain a non-payer. And the base will grow: Airbnb is moving to a single host fee of 15.5 % of the booking subtotal (14–16 % for some hosts) and is giving the European Economic Area until 13 October 2026 to adjust prices. Above a turnover of CZK 2,000,000 in a calendar year you become a VAT payer as of 1 January of the following year, and above CZK 2,536,500 on the day after you cross it; your accommodation service then falls into the reduced rate of 12 %, while the platform commission continues to carry 21 %.
Immediately after registering, enter your tax ID (the form is CZ + IČO, for a natural person CZ + birth number; registration does not change it, it only enters you in VIES) into your Airbnb profile and into the Booking extranet — in Airbnb under Menu → Account settings → Taxes, in Booking under Extranet → Finance → Finance settings → VAT details. Without it the platform will charge you 21 % Czech VAT, which as an identified person you cannot deduct, and under the prevailing interpretation that does not extinguish your duty to declare the tax in Czechia.

→ Identified person: the VAT on Airbnb and Booking commissions almost nobody knows about and article „The 2 million limit: when you become a VAT payer and what it does to your prices“

  1. 1WASTE As an entrepreneur you are the producer of the waste and its handover must be secured by a written contract before the waste arises (§ 15 (2) (c) of Act no. 541/2020 Coll.); you may not use the bin paid for out of the residents' fee. There are two routes: a contract with the municipality on joining the municipal system (§ 62 (2)), or a contract with a collection company. If you hand over all your municipal waste to the municipal system, you do not even keep running records of it. The contract covers sorted fractions too. In Prague's municipal system a legal set of bins costs CZK 4,377 to 6,687 a year excluding VAT (the price list applies until 31 December 2026), with a commercial collection company from CZK 3,163 a year including VAT for mixed waste alone. A missing contract risks up to CZK 1,000,000, using the municipal system without a contract up to CZK 10,000,000. → Municipal waste: the owners' association bins are not yours
  1. 1IMMOVABLE PROPERTY TAX A flat offered for accommodation services serves business purposes and is therefore taxed at the rate for other kinds of business, CZK 18.00/m² (§ 11 (1) (h) of Act no. 338/1992 Coll.), instead of CZK 3.50/m² multiplied by the coefficient for the size of the municipality. The base is the adjusted floor area: for a unit that includes a share in the land, the floor area × 1.22, otherwise × 1.20 (§ 10 (3) of the same Act). You report the change in a partial return by 31 January. According to the General Financial Directorate, a flat demonstrably offered on a portal serves business purposes even if it is not occupied on 1 January.
Example · Flat BYT1, 60 m², a unit in an apartment building in Vinohrady with a share in the land
Tax base: 60 m² × 1.2273.2 → 74 m²
As a flat for housing: 74 × 3.50 × 4.5 (Prague)CZK 1,166
As a flat for accommodation services: 74 × 18.00CZK 1,332
DifferenceCZK 166 a year
  1. 1GUEST DATA You process guest data in order to comply with a legal obligation (Article 6 (1) (c) of the General Data Protection Regulation) — you need no consent either for the records or for the reporting. But you must protect the data, use it for nothing else and destroy it six years after the last entry — unless you happen to be holding it on another title, such as an accounting document; for a newsletter, a legal obligation is no longer enough. → GDPR and guest data: what you may, what you must and what is forbidden and article „EU sanctions lists: the duty 99 % of hosts have never heard of“

What is coming

The European Union regulation on data sharing for short-term rentals (no. 2024/1028) has applied since 20 May 2026, but it creates obligations for hosts only where a member state has introduced a registration procedure — and the Ministry for Regional Development states that the Czech Republic does not apply one yet. The amendment to Act no. 159/1999 Coll. that is to introduce the eTurista register is sitting in the Chamber of Deputies before its first reading, with a negative opinion from the government of 9 March 2026; the ministry talks about a launch from 2027. The proposal envisages a registration number in the listing, entry of the guest within 24 hours and a fee ceiling of CZK 100.

A registration number is not required today. Websites claiming that eTurista is already running are reprinting the text of a bill that has not been passed.

The most common mistakes and myths

  • „I only have one flat, this doesn't apply to me.“ — It does. A provider of accommodation is anyone who provides accommodation for payment; the scale plays no role.
  • „Airbnb takes care of everything for me.“ — Platforms in Czechia neither collect nor remit the stay fee, and they will do nothing on this list for you. On the contrary: since 2023 they report your revenue and booking counts to the Financial Administration (DAC7).
  • „I only report guests from outside the EU.“ — You report all foreign nationals, Slovaks and Germans included. A foreign national is anyone who is not a citizen of the Czech Republic.
  • „If I pay tax, I don't pay the municipal fee as well.“ — The tax and the local fee are two different things. What is more, the fee is not your income; you merely collect it for the municipality.

Frequently asked questions

I only host over the summer, a few weeks a year. Do I still need a trade licence?
Yes. A trade is a systematic activity carried on for profit, and a flat let repeatedly is one even in seasonal operation.
What if I have not been doing some of this for years?
It can be put right, and that is cheaper than waiting for an inspection. The trade licence and the business premises can be notified at any time, for the fee you pay the amount owed (the municipality may increase it up to twice the difference) and for taxes you file a supplementary return.
Do I report and record Czech guests too?
Not to the Foreign Police — they only want foreign nationals. But you enter every guest to whom you provide a paid stay in the guest register; you then remit the fee for those who are not registered as residents in the municipality — including a Czech from another town.
How Ubyo helps
Bookings are downloaded from the platforms, guests register themselves through a link, the UbyPort report goes out automatically, the stay fee is calculated according to your municipality's settings, the guest register keeps itself and the documents for VAT on commissions are generated in a couple of clicks. → Online check-in and the guest portal: fewer messages, happier guests
Legal framework and sources (7)
  • Act no. 455/1991 Coll., on trade licensing, § 17 and Annex no. 4 — business premises and the sign
  • Act no. 326/1999 Coll., on the residence of foreign nationals, § 99 to 103 — provider of accommodation, reporting, house book
  • Act no. 565/1990 Coll., on local fees, § 3a to 3g — the stay fee and the guest register
  • Act no. 586/1992 Coll., on income taxes, § 7 — taxation and flat-rate expenses
  • Act no. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax, § 6h and § 97 — identified person
  • Act no. 541/2020 Coll., on waste, § 15 and § 62 — the waste contract
  • ubyport.pcr.cz/UbyPort — registration of the facility and reporting of guests

Updated: 5 September 2026, verified against the sources listed above. This is informational text, not legal or tax advice — consult a professional about your specific situation.