Two million crowns of turnover. A number every more successful host should have written on the fridge. Crossing it makes you a VAT payer — with everything that goes with it: monthly returns, a control statement and, above all, VAT on every night. Whoever misses the limit usually hears it from the tax office: you become a payer by operation of law even without an application, the tax administrator then registers you ex officio and assesses the tax for the whole intervening period (§ 129(3) of the Tax Code).

The good news: it can be kept under control. Since 2025 turnover has been tracked per calendar year and there are two thresholds — one gives you months to prepare, the other makes you a payer overnight.

What to do

What counts towards turnover

Domestic turnover is the aggregate of considerations excluding tax that are due to you for supplies made with the place of supply in the Czech Republic (§ 4a(1) of Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on VAT). The key word is „due": what matters is not what lands in your account, but what is the reward for your service — the price per night plus all the fees you charge yourself (cleaning, extra guest, late check-in, pet).

• The platform's commission does not reduce turnover. It is a separate service the platform supplies to you; it is your cost, not a discount off your revenue. The same goes for the payment services fee the platform charges for processing the guest's payment — that too is your cost, not a reduction of the price.
• The service fee the guest pays directly to the platform (the split-fee model) does not belong in your turnover — it is not consideration for your service. Watch out for the change: from 13. 10. 2026 Airbnb is moving all hosts in the EEA and Switzerland to a single host fee of 15.5 % of the booking subtotal (14–16 % for some hosts). From that moment the guest pays exactly your price — and that whole price is your turnover, even though Airbnb deducts 15.5 % from the payout.
• Exempt long-term rent IS counted towards turnover. If, alongside Airbnb, you rent out another flat in the classic way for years at a time, the rent belongs in turnover even though it is exempt from VAT (§ 4a(1)(c) in conjunction with § 56a). The only exception is ancillary activity carried out occasionally. It is the quietest way to underestimate the limit by hundreds of thousands.
• The stay fee collected for the municipality does not belong in turnover. The taxpayer is the guest, you are merely the collector obliged to gather the fee (§ 3f of Act No. 565/1990 Coll., on local fees); an amount received to cover an amount expended in the name of and for the account of another person is not included in the tax base (§ 36(14) of the VAT Act). The condition, on the prevailing interpretation, is that you state the fee in your price list and on the document as a separate item — if it is hidden in the accommodation price, it is part of the consideration. The rate is set by your municipality's ordinance, at most CZK 50 for each commenced day of the stay except the day it begins (§ 3c and § 3d), and the fee collected or the ground of exemption is kept separately in the register, which you retain for 6 years from the last entry (§ 3g(2)(e) and (4)). → Stay fee: every municipality sets it differently — and you are the one collecting it
• The sale of long-term assets (a car, equipment) is not counted towards turnover unless such a sale is an integral part of your usual activity (§ 4a(3)).
• If you have another business alongside accommodation, the turnovers ARE ADDED UP. Turnover is a property of the taxable person, not of an individual activity (§ 4a(1) and § 5(1)).
• Only supplies with the place of supply in the Czech Republic are counted. Anyone established in another EU state who rents out a flat in the Czech Republic additionally deals with the cross-border regime for small enterprises with a limit of EUR 100,000 of turnover across the whole EU (§ 109bb et seq.). This does not concern a Czech host with a Czech flat.

Why so many people get this wrong: the platforms do not send the commission for payment by transfer, they deduct it from the payout (netting). Booking.com B.V., VAT NL805734958B01, states it expressly on the monthly invoice — the amount of the document is deducted from your next payout. It looks like this: for bookings worth EUR 1,000 the invoice shows a commission of EUR 150 and a payment services fee of EUR 15, EUR 165 in total to be deducted. The turnover is EUR 1,000, not the EUR 835 that arrives in the account. Airbnb Ireland UC, VAT no. IE9827384L, invoices per individual booking, but the principle is the same.

Do not confuse two different documents in the process. The tax document is the monthly invoice for the commission („Invoice"). Alongside it comes the „Payment statement" (payout summary) with a breakdown of bookings, commission, payment services fee and net revenue — that is not a tax document and its last column with net revenue is not your turnover; it serves only to reconcile payments.

The difference between turnover and payout is not cosmetic. With a commission of 15.0 % of the booking price and a payment services fee of 1.5 %, the payout is roughly 16.5 % lower than turnover. Anyone who calculates turnover from what arrived in the account crosses the limit sooner than they think — and finds out about the crossing only in retrospect.

Two thresholds and when you become a payer

Since 1. 1. 2025 turnover has been tracked per CALENDAR YEAR, not over 12 rolling months. The rule applies unchanged today and no announced amendment changes it before 1. 1. 2027.

1. 1If in a year you exceed a turnover of CZK 2,000,000 and not the second threshold, you are a payer from 1 January of the immediately following calendar year (§ 6(1)). So you have months to prepare.
2. 2You may choose earlier payer status — from the day following the day of crossing. The condition is that you tell the tax administrator so in an application filed IN TIME and state § 6(2)(a) as the ground of registration in line 06. File the application late and the option lapses, and you are a payer only from 1 January.
3. 3If you exceed a turnover of CZK 2,536,500 (the amount corresponds to the EU limit of EUR 100,000), you are a payer from the day following the day of crossing (§ 6(2)(b)). No time to prepare — and you must file a NEW application even if you already filed one because of the first threshold.

In both cases a period of 10 working days runs from the day of crossing (§ 94(1)). It begins on the day following the day of crossing; if its end falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it moves to the nearest working day (§ 33(2) and (4) of the Tax Code).

Registration step by step

1. 1Establish the exact day of crossing — not the day of the payout, but the day the supply was made by which you passed the threshold. You count 10 working days from it.
2. 2Open the MOJE daně portal (mojedane.gov.cz) — either the DIS+ tax information box or the EPO application at adisspr.mfcr.cz.
3. 3Fill in form 25 5104 MFin 5104 „Přihláška k registraci k dani z přidané hodnoty" (application for VAT registration). It is the same form as for the identified person, differing only in the ground of registration.
4. 4In line 06 state the statutory ground: § 6(1) (payer from 1 January), § 6(2)(a) (I want to be a payer straight after crossing 2 million), or § 6(2)(b) (I have exceeded CZK 2,536,500).
5. 5Attach the recommended General Financial Directorate annex „Příloha přihlášky k registraci k dani z přidané hodnoty – informace k ekonomické činnosti" (annex to the VAT registration application – information on economic activity), electronically as another attachment. A turnover overview and a few invoices will speed registration up too.
6. 6Send it electronically. The application can be filed ONLY electronically (§ 101a(2)); a filing in another form is ineffective (§ 101a(4)) — paper at the filing room will not save your deadline.
7. 7Wait for the decision. The tax administrator decides within 30 days from the day the application is filed, or from the day defects are remedied (§ 129(1) of the Tax Code). For applications filed by 30 September without the option of earlier payer status, the tax office first merely notifies you in writing and issues the decision no earlier than 1. 12. and no later than 31. 12. of that year (§ 97b).

What payer status does to your prices

Accommodation services carry the reduced VAT rate of 12 % (§ 47(1)(b) and (4), Annex No. 2, item CZ-CPA 55 „Accommodation services"). You have two clean options and one realistic one: raise the price by the VAT (you multiply the price by 1.12 under § 37(a) and keep your margin, but you are 12 % more expensive than the non-payer next door), leave prices as they are (the VAT then comes out of the margin — you pay 10.71 % of the amount collected, § 37(b)), or combine the two.

Decide BEFORE the threshold. Prices for the season are set months ahead and bookings confirmed at the old price cannot be redone.

Mind the turn of the year. The obligation to declare tax arises on the day the supply is made, or on the day the consideration is received if it is received earlier and the supply is known with sufficient certainty (§ 20a). Consideration received before payer status arose is not subject to tax; for stays taking place only after payer status arises you must therefore be able to tell when the payment actually occurred — especially with platforms that pay out only after the guest arrives. In the January after registration this is the most common source of mistakes.

The upsides and the obligations that come with payer status

Payer status is not just a minus. You gain the right to deduct VAT on purchases — equipment, renovation, energy, services of Czech suppliers (§ 72 et seq.). With Airbnb and Booking commissions it is neutral: the platform is a person not established in the Czech Republic, you declare the tax on its commission yourself and deduct it straight away. → Identified person: the VAT on Airbnb and Booking commissions almost nobody knows about

The real reason why entering before a large investment pays off is § 79. When payer status arises you are entitled to a deduction on supplies received in the period of 12 consecutive months before the day of payer status, provided they are part of your business assets on that day (§ 79(1)). For unfinished long-term assets — typically a renovation under way — the period reaches back as far as 60 months, if the assets were put into use in the 12 months before payer status or at the earliest on that day (§ 79(2)). You claim the deduction in the return for the period into which the day payer status arises falls (§ 79(7)); in the same return a newly registered payer states, on lines 50 and 51, the values of exempt supplies under § 76(1)(b) made from 1 January of that year to the day preceding the arising of payer status. In practice: if you become a payer as of 1. 1. 2027, you reach purchases back to 1. 1. 2026, and with an unfinished renovation as far back as 1. 1. 2022.

The second upside is commercial: a corporate client who is a payer deducts 12 % from your accommodation, so your price excluding tax is comparable for them with a non-payer's price.

And the extra obligations:

• A monthly tax period. The tax period is the calendar month (§ 99). You cannot choose a quarterly one for the year of registration nor for the immediately following year (§ 99a(3)) — a new payer files monthly for at least two years. An exception only on a request filed by the end of October of the year of registration on grounds deserving special consideration.
• A return within 25 days after the end of the tax period. The deadline CANNOT be extended (§ 101(2) of the VAT Act, § 136(4) of the Tax Code). You file the return even for a month without a single sale.
• The control statement. A natural person files it within the deadline for the return, a legal person always monthly within 25 days after the end of the month (§ 101e). It cannot be extended.
• Fines for the control statement (§ 101h): CZK 1,000 for a subsequent filing without a call, CZK 10,000 for filing within the substitute period after a call, CZK 30,000 for failing to file after a call to change or supplement it and CZK 50,000 for failing to file after a call; for a natural person, a quarterly payer and a single-member limited company whose member is a natural person, the three higher amounts are halved. Up to CZK 500,000 for seriously hindering or obstructing tax administration. The CZK 1,000 fine arises by operation of law even with a one-day delay — the most common nasty surprise for a small host.
• Records for VAT purposes (§ 100), everything electronically (§ 101a(1)).
• Tax documents. To a corporate guest — a taxable person or a non-taxable legal person — you ARE OBLIGED to issue a document even without being asked, within 15 days from the day the obligation to declare the tax arose (§ 28(1)(a) and (8)). For a private guest the law does not require a tax document to be issued. Up to a total amount of CZK 10,000 a simplified tax document is enough (§ 30(1)); its particulars are in § 29.

How to keep an eye on the limit

Turnover does not grow linearly — the high season can add hundreds of thousands in a month. In practice:

• Track running turnover for the calendar year and the projection to the year end, not just the figure reached.
• Calculate from the gross price and add exempt long-term rent and any other business.
• At CZK 1,600,000 (80 % of the limit) start the pricing scenario: raise prices, or take it out of the margin? And will I manage to reset prices for next season?
• If you are approaching the second threshold of CZK 2,536,500, have the application ready in advance — 10 working days in the middle of the season is a poor thing to rely on.

The most common mistakes and myths

• „I count towards turnover only what came into my account after the commission was deducted." — No. Turnover is the consideration due to you for the stay; the platform's commission is your cost, not a discount off revenue. The platform deducts both the commission and the payment services fee from the payout, so you cross the limit before the corresponding amount shows up in your account.
• „Long-term rent is exempt, so it does not count towards the limit." — On the contrary. Exempt rent of immovable property is counted towards turnover (§ 4a(1)(c)), unless it is occasional ancillary activity.
• „I have two flats and two trades, each has its own limit." — Turnover is counted per PERSON, not per activity. A natural person moreover has one company ID number regardless of the number of trades.
• „I am an identified person, so I need not worry about the limit any more." — You do. An identified person pays 21 % VAT on commissions regardless of turnover, but must keep tracking turnover for payer status.
• „The second threshold is only theoretical." — It is not. At CZK 2,536,500 you are a payer overnight and must file a new application within 10 working days, even if you have already filed one.
• „Turnover is tracked over 12 rolling months." — Not since 1. 1. 2025, it is tracked per calendar year.
• „The authorities will get in touch when it becomes relevant." — You become a payer by operation of law. Without an application the tax administrator registers you ex officio and assesses the tax for the intervening period.

Frequently asked questions

Updated: 5. 9. 2026, verified against the sources listed. Informational text, not legal or tax advice — discuss your specific situation with a professional.