In connection with the establishment of a data box for a significantly expanded range of persons, the tax office has noticed a large increase in incorrectly filed income tax returns of natural persons or even legal entities due to non-compliance with the general obligation to file tax returns exclusively electronically in the prescribed format and structure. Taxpayers often made mistakes in the method of filing, submitting their tax returns on paper or sending them in .pdf format instead of .xml.

The tax administration is aware that the new legal obligation affects, for example, entities that do not have the necessary technical background and therefore, with reference to the principles of good administration, it introduces a temporary tolerance for defects in submissions. Therefore, the tax administrator will not impose a fine of CZK 1,000 in cases where the tax subject did not comply with the mandatory electronic filing method or filed a tax return in an incorrect format between 1 January 2023 and 2 May 2023.

The digitalisation of the civil service is certainly perceived by all as the right step forward, but care must be taken for those, who do not have the personnel and technical resources. We therefore welcome the decision of the tax administration to introduce temporary tolerance of filing defects and not to impose penalties for non-compliance with the method of filing tax returns. This year we have encountered many opinions from our clients, who were newly obliged to file their tax returns electronically due to the establishment of a data box. From the reactions of our clients, we can only infer conflicting feelings about the new form of communication between these tax entities and the tax administration.

On the other hand, the tax administration also seems to be struggling with the rules for communication via data boxes. As we have pointed out in our newsletter, some real estate taxpayers will not receive a real estate tax bill in the mail this year. The Financial Administration states that all holders of data boxes, who do not have the SIPO service activated or information sent by email, will receive information on the payment of real estate tax in their data boxes. However, we believe that in cases, where an individual has only a business data box and does not use the property for business, the tax office should not, according to a formalistic interpretation, send anything to this data box regarding this tax. However, we have seen such cases in our practice.  

Author: Roman Burnus, Marek Toráč