Czech VAT 2025: No Pay, No VAT Play
- Ing. Ales Kolenovsky, CMA
- Sep 21
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 1
New Rule in a Nutshell:
From 1 January 2025, Czech VAT law (§74b of Act 235/2004 Coll.) says: if you’ve claimed input VAT on an invoice and don’t pay it within 6 months after due date, you must give the VAT back to the tax office.
No supplier credit note needed – you simply reverse it yourself
Partial payments? Then you reverse only the VAT on the unpaid slice
Pay later? You can reclaim it (but only within 2 years)
Who’s Hit the Hardest?
B2B buyers: Cash-flow tight? Too bad. The VAT you thought you’d safely deducted now boomerangs back to the state.
B2C buyers: No input deduction anyway, so the rule doesn’t bite here.
And Sellers? Here’s the kicker: while buyers must return their VAT credit after 6 months, sellers still owe output VAT right away – unless they can later prove the receivable is a “bad debt” under separate rules (§46). Translation: for a while, both sides may be funding the state on a deal that never got paid.
Why the Change? Brussels gave the nod (CJEU case C-335/19). The Czech taxman doesn’t want to bankroll your unpaid bills, nor subsidize creative fraud where invoices never get settled. This forces buyers to either pay suppliers or lose the cash-flow perk.
What about Czech Republic neighbors?
Slovakia: Harsher – refund VAT after 100 days unpaid
Poland: Even harsher – 90 days, with penalties if you “forget”
Austria & Germany: Kinder – no fixed deadline. Relief comes only if the debt is truly uncollectible (often years later).
What It Means in Practice: