Despite the basic rules and conceptions of the value added tax stay the same, every year usually brings us more or less important changes to the Act on VAT. These changes are often enforced by amendments of superior European regulations; sometimes they are a reaction to current trends in society. The last change concerning the VAT, that you may have noticed, applies to VAT rate for newspapers and magazines.

For years, newspapers and magazines fell within the first reduced rate if advertisements covered less than 50 % of the printed material. Recently, newspapers and magazines have been transferred into the second reduced rate and now 10% VAT rate is applied.

First impulses for the transfer of newspapers and magazines into the second reduced VAT rate were registered towards the end of 2015 when members of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia proposed this motion. However, at that time, the motion was denied. After more than a year it was discussed again and in the end, it was passed through a fast-track procedure. Out of 135 Members of Parliament 101 voted aye. There were no objections to this amendment in the Senate and the only thing left was the president’s authorization. Therefore, the original plan was for the amendment to come into force at the beginning of 2017. Problems began when the president returned the amendment to the Chamber of Deputies reasoning that the loss of income, which this transfer of newspapers and magazines into the second reduced VAT rate would cause, was not taken into account while planning the state budget for 2017. President’s veto was, however, voted down by Members of Parliament on 10^th January.

This regulation was published in the Collection of Laws on 14^th February 2017 and came into force 15 days later, that is 1^st March 2017.

Should you have any questions regarding this topic, don’t hesitate to ask us.

Author: Zbyněk Švejcar