Fifty crowns per person per night does not sound like much. But for an apartment with 200 occupied nights a year and an average of two guests it is CZK 20,000 — money you collect from the guests and remit to the municipality. In Plzeň the same operation would yield CZK 14,000, in Brno-Žabovřesky CZK 8,400. The law gives only a ceiling; the amount is set by your municipality's decree.

Anyone who fails to notify the municipality or to keep the guest register is playing for a fine of up to CZK 500,000 (§ 247a of the Tax Code); anyone who fails to remit the fee is playing for an increase of up to twice the amount owed (§ 11c) and for an assessment three years back. And yet, with good records, it is the simplest duty of them all: you notify once, and after that you merely count persons, nights and the rate.

What to do

How the fee works

The fee is paid by the GUEST — but it is YOU who collects and remits it. The taxpayer is a person not registered as a resident in the municipality (§ 3); the payer is the provider of the paid stay and is obliged to collect the fee from the taxpayer (§ 3f). Registration means permanent residence or a notified place of stay of a foreign national with permanent or long-term residence (§ 16c) — so a Praguer staying in Prague does not pay, while a guest from Brno in Prague does.

The calculation is trivial: the base is the number of commenced days of the stay excluding the day the stay begins (§ 3c) — in practice „per night“. The rate is set by the municipality's decree up to the statutory ceiling of CZK 50 (§ 3d) and the fee is the product of the base and the rate (§ 3e). It is rounded up to whole crowns (§ 146 (1) of the Tax Code; the Act on Local Fees has no rule of its own).

The fee applies to a paid stay lasting no more than 60 consecutive calendar days with a single provider (§ 3a (1)). Beware a common misconception: a stay longer than 60 consecutive calendar days with one provider is not subject to the fee at all — not even for the first 60 days; under the Ministry of Finance's interpretation (MP/08/2019) neither the fee duty nor the record-keeping duty then arises. The duties towards the Foreign Police (the house book and the report) do not lapse, however. A short interruption of a paid stay meanwhile starts a new beginning and a new count of sixty days (MP/08/2020).

Nor is the fee charged on a stay involving deprivation of personal liberty or a stay in an inpatient healthcare facility covered by public health insurance — with the exception of spa medical rehabilitation care (§ 3a (2)). That exception is new from 1 January 2024 (amendment no. 252/2023 Coll.): even comprehensive spa care paid for by an insurer is today subject to the fee, unless the municipality exempts it by decree.

The fee is neither income tax nor VAT, but a separate payment to the municipality. Nor is the fee collected your income: in practice it is recorded separately and included neither in revenue nor in the VAT base; confirm the setup with your accountant. → How to tax Airbnb income: § 7, not § 9 — and why it matters

Who is exempt

Exempt by law is a person (§ 3b (1)):

• who is blind, a person regarded as dependent on the help of another natural person under the Act on Social Services, a holder of a ZTP/P card and their companion,
• under 18 years of age — a guest who has turned 18 already pays the fee,
• hospitalised in the municipality in a healthcare facility of an inpatient care provider, except a person receiving spa medical rehabilitation care,
• caring for children at a recreational or similar event for children held in the municipality,
• performing seasonal work in the municipality for a legal entity or a natural person in business; seasonal work is work dependent on the alternation of the seasons that is usually repeated every year (§ 3b (3)) — construction workers do not belong here,
• staying in a school facility for institutional or protective education or in a facility for children requiring immediate assistance, in a social services facility, in a facility for people in need operated by a public-benefit taxpayer, or for the purpose of carrying out rescue or clean-up work under the Integrated Rescue System Act.

Subsection 2 exempts members of a security corps, soldiers in active service and civil servants or employees of the Czech Republic staying in a facility owned by the state or the municipality in connection with performing official duties. The municipality may exempt further groups by decree (§ 14 (3) (a)); Prague, for instance, exempts the accommodation of students for the purposes of study or companions of hospitalised patients.

The 18-year threshold is statutory (§ 3b (1) (b)) and cannot be lowered — neither by a municipal decree nor by agreement with the guest. The municipality may only widen the circle of exempt persons (§ 14 (3) (a)), never narrow it. That is why the 18-year threshold is fixed in the app too and cannot be reconfigured.

Find your municipality's decree

The stay fee exists only where the municipality has introduced it by a general binding decree (§ 14) — if your municipality has no decree, there is nothing to collect, notify or remit. The rate, the notification deadline and the remittance dates are then set by the municipality itself. Since 1 January 2022 the only binding place of promulgation for general binding decrees is the Collection of Legal Regulations of Local Governments at sbirkapp.gov.cz (Act no. 35/2021 Coll.) — only there is the wording in force, amendments included. A municipality's own website is often years out of date.

The position as of September 2026 (check your own municipality in the Collection):

• Prague — CZK 50; notification within 30 days of starting the activity, the end within 15 days; remittance and report monthly by the 15th day of the following month (Prague General Binding Decree no. 18/2019 Coll. as amended by no. 19/2021); the administrator is the city district office for the place of stay, for hotels the City Hall.
• Brno — the rate is set by the annex to the decree according to the city district, Žabovřesky and Komín CZK 21; notification within 15 days, remittance and a written report within 25 days after the quarter (General Binding Decree no. 24/2025 in force from 1 January 2026); the administrator is the city district office.
• Ostrava — CZK 45 from 1 January 2025; notification within 15 days, remittance within 15 days after the quarter (General Binding Decree no. 13/2023 as amended by no. 11/2024); the administrator is the City Hall, not the boroughs.
• Olomouc — CZK 50; notification within 15 days, remittance by the 15th day of the month after the quarter (General Binding Decree no. 14/2023).
• Plzeň — CZK 35 from 1 January 2025; notification within 15 days; remittance by 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January (General Binding Decree no. 6/2021 as amended by no. 9/2024).
• Liberec — CZK 50 from 1 January 2026 (previously CZK 40); notification within 15 days; the period depends on capacity — above 20 beds a month, up to 20 beds half a year — and the report within 15 days of its end through the Citizen Portal (General Binding Decree no. 5/2019 as amended by no. 6/2025).
• České Budějovice — CZK 50; notification within 15 days; remittance and settlement within 15 days of the end of the half-year (General Binding Decree no. 7/2023).
• Hradec Králové and Špindlerův Mlýn CZK 40 (Špindlerův Mlýn with remittance as early as the 5th day after the quarter); Karlovy Vary, Český Krumlov, Mikulov, Lipno nad Vltavou and Železná Ruda CZK 50.

Do not go by what applies in Prague — and look again after the turn of the year: both Liberec and Železná Ruda raised their rates as of 1 January 2026.

The notification: the first step people trip over

A single filing awaits you — the payer's notification under § 14a.

1. 1Find out who your fee administrator is: the municipal office, the city hall, or (in Prague and Brno) the city district office for the apartment's address.
2. 2Download the payer's notification form from its website — municipalities call it various things, for example „Registrace — poplatek z pobytu“ (registration — stay fee) in Ostrava or simply „Ohlášení“ (notification) in Lipno nad Vltavou.
3. 3Fill in the payer's identification, the numbers of all accounts used for business including foreign ones and the providers of the banking services, and the details decisive for the fee — the address of the place of stay, the type of facility and the number of beds (§ 14a (2)).
4. 4File it through the data box, by e-mail with a recognised signature, through the municipality's portal, in person or by post. → Data box: 20 minutes that save you years of trudging between offices
5. 5Note down the variable symbol and the account number the administrator gives you.

The law sets no deadline; the municipality sets it in the decree (§ 14 (2) (b)) and it runs from the start of the accommodation activity — most often 15 days, in Prague, Mikulov and Železná Ruda 30 days. „Notify before your first guest“ is therefore good advice, not a statutory deadline; the municipality may even rule out the notification duty by decree (§ 14 (3) (c)).

You file the notification once; after that only changes are reported — a new account, a different number of beds, the end of the activity — within 15 days of the day they occurred (§ 14a (4)).

Remittance and calculation

Besides the payment, most municipalities also want a report with the total of chargeable nights, exempt persons and the amount remitted — on their own form or through the municipality's portal.

The guest register for the municipality

You keep the guest register on paper or electronically for each facility or place where you provide a paid stay (§ 3g (1)) — two apartments mean two registers. The law prescribes five particulars about each guest: the day the stay begins and ends, the name and address of the place of registration, the date of birth, the number and type of identity document (the law lists nine types) and the amount of the fee collected, or the reason for exemption (§ 3g (2)). → The guest register: what must not be missing (and what does not belong there)

The entries must be correct, complete, verifiable, clear, comprehensible, permanent and chronologically ordered (§ 3g (3)). You retain the register for 6 years from the day the last entry was made (§ 3g (4)) — the period does not run from the stay, so with a register kept continuously you have to produce substantially older records too.

It is not the same as the house book for the Foreign Police: that is kept in the scope of the registration form and additionally wants citizenship, the number of the travel document and of the visa, the purpose of stay and the foreign national's signature. The particulars overlap, though, so collect them with a single check-in. → The guest register: what must not be missing (and what does not belong there)

What you risk if you ignore it

For failing to meet the notification or record-keeping duty the administrator may impose a fine of up to CZK 500,000 (§ 247a (1) of the Tax Code). It does not depend on the amount of the fee owed — it comes even if you remitted everything and merely failed to notify. Compliance can moreover be enforced by a procedural fine of up to CZK 500,000, repeatedly (§ 247 of the Tax Code).

For late payment the fee administrator may set an increase of the fee of up to twice the difference between the amount that should have been remitted and the amount remitted by the original due date (§ 11c (1)) — in the worst case you pay three times the debt. The increase is set by a payment assessment or a collective assessment list within 1 year of the day of late payment (§ 11c (2) and (4)) and is due within 30 days of the decision being notified (§ 11c (5)). The fee itself can be assessed within 3 years (§ 148 of the Tax Code); the administrator's acts extend that, up to 10 years at most.

Neither the penalty nor the interest under the Tax Code applies to local fees (§ 11c (6)) — anyone frightening you with „penalties“ is confusing a local fee with a tax.

What is coming (and what does not apply yet)

Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on the collection and sharing of short-term rental data has applied since 20 May 2026, but the platforms may ask you for a registration number only where the state has introduced a registration procedure. As of 5 September 2026 Czechia has none, so nothing follows from the regulation for you yet.

The Czech eTurista register has not been approved. The government bill from the previous electoral term ended before its third reading; the new members' bill (parliamentary print 106, 10th electoral term) has a negative opinion from the government and as of 5 September 2026 had not passed even its first reading — the Chamber has it proposed for the agenda of its 30th session from 8 September 2026. The Ministry for Regional Development counts on a launch in 2027 at the earliest. The bill also includes raising the fee ceiling from CZK 50 to CZK 100.

The most common mistakes and myths

• „It's in the Airbnb price, the platform remits it.“ — Not in Czechia. Airbnb publishes a list of countries where it collects and remits occupancy taxes for hosts, and the Czech Republic is not on it; Booking.com does not remit the fee in Czechia either. By law the payer is you (§ 3f).
• „I won't remit it, the municipality will never find out.“ — The municipality may request data from third parties (§ 57 of the Tax Code), it compares the guest register with the report and it carries out inspections; an assessment can go 3 years back. Platform data under DAC7 goes to the Financial Administration, not to municipalities.
• „The guest stayed for a quarter of a year, so I remitted at least for the first 60 days.“ — You did not have to; such a stay is not subject to the fee and a fee collected belongs back to the guest.
• „An eighteen-year-old is still a child, they don't pay.“ — Exempt is a person under 18. Anyone who has already celebrated their 18th birthday pays the fee.
• An unrecorded reason for exemption in the case of children — the register must not hold a zero but the reason (§ 3g (2) (e)).
• „A spa guest with a voucher from their insurer is exempt.“ — Not since 1 January 2024; only the municipality's decree can exempt them.

Frequently asked questions

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.