The current situation in the Czech Republic enables gradual opening of shops and services, the activity of which was limited or which were closed due to the government measures. The health situation does not enable opening all trade at once, and the government has therefore approved a prolongation of compensation bonuses, which it will also pay for May 2021. The Financial Administration is currently accepting request from entrepreneurs for March and April, the utmost deadline for submitting request for the compensation bonus for the month of February 2021 for entrepreneurs was 3 May.

Since 10 May 2021, the financial administration has been accepting new requests for compensation bonus for the month of May 2021 as well. According to the approved act no. 95/2021 Coll., on compensation bonus for the year 2021, which is no longer linked to the state of emergency, the amount of the paid bonus has increased from CZK 500 to CZK 1000 per day, for an agreement to complete a job or agreement to perform work the contribution is up to CZK 500 per day. In order to achieve entitlement to the compensation, it is necessary to present a statutory declaration about a decrease of income greater than 50 % compared to the time before the pandemic. This decisive indicator will compare the decrease of income in April 2021 with the average for the period of January, February and March 2020 or 2019.

According to the data of the Finance Ministry, the Financial Administration processed 328,000 requests as of the end of April already and more than eight billion korunas have been paid in compensation bonuses.

COVID 2021 and COVID – Uncovered Costs support programmes

Subsidies from these programmes previously only applied to the period of the first three months of this year, but the government has approved a new prolongation. Companies can therefore request a subsidy from the COVID 2021 programme reaching CZK 500 per employee per day for the period of January 11 to May 9. The date of May 9 resonates with the loosening of government measures for a major part of shops, which can open from May 10. The subsidy for April and May will be automatically prolonged for applicants, who submitted a request for compensation until 31 March 2021. The request will then be sent to them for control and confirmation.

The COVID – Uncovered Cost programme, which is an alternative to COVID 2021, will also continue. This alternative provides a subsidy of 60 percent of costs for the private sector up to the maximum support of CZK 40m. It is not possible to draw down these subsidies both at once, nor can they be combined in any way, but after May 9, entrepreneurs can also request subsidies for the month of May in the programme COVID – Uncovered Costs. The applicants should know, however, that the money for the first 9 days of May, which they drew down from the COVID 2021, programme, will be subtracted.