2024 income tax deadlines for the self-employed

The tax-office return

Put simply, there are 3 deadlines for filing an income tax return:

The first two deadlines fall within the statutory time limit and you may choose freely between them. The latest deadline is a special case requiring a power of attorney for a tax adviser, who then files the business's return in their own name using their own data box. This “deferral” of the tax payment costs around CZK 5 thousand. 

Statements for the health insurer and district social-security office

Once you have chosen when to file your return, you can decide when to submit your health-insurance and social-security statements. These must be filed no later than 1 month after the tax return. And paid within 8 days of filing. 

As you can imagine, there are many combinations of filing dates for the return and statements. Generally, choose according to when you want to pay the tax and outstanding contributions. 

Overpayments 

You may also end up with a tax or insurance overpayment. The refund deadlines vary considerably, depending on the institution and when you filed the return or statement.

Income tax advances for the tax office

The timing of filing affects not only tax and insurance payments but also subsequent advances. Income tax is probably the most complicated. Self-employed people whose last known tax liability exceeded CZK 30 thousand pay advances. Depending on the tax amount, advances are then paid half-yearly or quarterly.

* if the date falls on a weekend, payment is due on the next working day

For the first two standard tax-payment deadlines, the first advance is due in June. With the latest deadline involving a tax adviser, both the tax payment itself and the first advance are postponed: to 15.9. for quarterly advances or 15.12. for half-yearly advances.

Health-insurance and social-security advances

Advance amounts change from year to year, and you must ensure that from January you always pay at least the minimum advances. Your submitted statements then determine the advances payable until you file next year's statements. Essentially, you update your advances based on last year's income to minimise underpayments and overpayments. It is similar to electricity bills: your supplier also increases your advances if your last consumption was high. 🙂 

When you file a health-insurance statement, you must adjust advances for the very month in which you file it. When you file a social-security statement, you only adjust advances from the following month.

---

There are many options, and their impact on your cash flow is huge.

Generally, however, I see 3 types of client. You can take inspiration from them:

1. Those who want everything paid immediately and do not wait for any deadline. We file everything as soon as it is prepared and approved.
2. Those who want to postpone payments as much as possible but do not want to pay for that. The return is filed in late April, and tax is due on 2.5.2024. We file the statements in late May, with payment due around the turn of May and June. 
3. Those who really want to delay payments and pay for an extension through a tax adviser. The return is filed in late June, and tax is due on 1.7.2024. We file the statements in late July, with payment due around the turn of July and August. 

---

When do you want to file your return? 🙂