This guide is for Czech tax residents: people whose home or centre of life is in the Czech Republic. A Czech tax resident declares their worldwide income, so an account with a broker abroad changes nothing about where the income is taxed. Not sure whether you are resident? Read tax residency and the 183-day rule first.
The Czech tax year is the calendar year. The rules below are those for 2026; where 2025 was different, we say so.
Which part of the tax return
The Czech income tax return sorts income into sections, named after the paragraphs (§) of the Income Tax Act (zákon o daních z příjmů). Investment income lands in three of them:
| What you received | Section | How it is taxed |
|---|---|---|
| Dividends and interest from abroad (foreign shares, distributing ETFs, interest on cash at a foreign broker) | § 8 capital income | Separate tax base at a flat 15%, minus the tax already withheld abroad (up to the treaty rate) |
| Dividends and interest from Czech companies and banks | § 8 | 15% withheld at source; that is the final tax, it does not go in your return |
| Profit from selling shares, ETFs, bonds or crypto | § 10 other income | Tax-free if a time test or the value test is met; otherwise the profit is added to your normal tax base (15%, 23% above 1,762,812 CZK) |
| Shares or options from your employer (RSUs, ESPP discount, exercised options) | § 6 employment | Taxed as salary, with social and health insurance; a later sale of the shares is § 10 |
Dividends from foreign shares and ETFs
Dividends and interest from abroad form a separate tax base (samostatný základ daně), taxed at a flat 15%, whatever your other income. No costs, tax credits or deductions can be set against it. You declare it in its own attachment of the tax return, and you must file a return for it, even if you would otherwise not have to.
Most countries withhold tax on dividends before they reach you. The double tax treaty between that country and the Czech Republic decides how much they may keep, and the Czech Republic then credits that tax against the Czech 15%. Two limits apply:
- The credit is never more than the Czech tax on the same income. If the source country took 26%, you pay nothing more here, but you do not get the difference back from the Czech tax office.
- Only tax up to the treaty rate can be credited. US shares are the usual example: with a W-8BEN form at your broker, the US withholds 15% and nothing more is due here. Without the form, the US withholds 30%, and the extra 15% can only be reclaimed from the US, not from the Czech tax office.
Keep the broker's yearly tax report or the US form 1042-S: it shows the gross dividend and the tax withheld, and the tax office can ask for it. More on treaties in foreign income and double tax treaties.
Accumulating or distributing ETFs
A distributing ETF pays out dividends: each payment is § 8 income in the year you receive it. An accumulating ETF reinvests them inside the fund, so you receive nothing to declare until you sell. A sale of either kind is § 10 income, with the same time and value tests as shares.
Selling shares and ETFs: the two tests
A profit from selling shares, ETF units or bonds is tax-free when either test is met. The tests apply per sale for the time test and per year for the value test.
| Test | Rule | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Time test (časový test) | Held for more than 3 years between purchase and sale | Counted per purchase. Shares bought in several batches each have their own date. A share in a Czech s.r.o. needs 5 years. |
| Value test | Your total sales proceeds in the year are at most 100,000 CZK | It counts the gross sale amounts, not the profit, and it includes sales at a loss. One large sale can push the whole year over the limit. |
A tax-free sale does not go in your tax return at all. A taxable sale does: you declare the proceeds and deduct what the shares cost you, including the fees.
The 40 million cap. For 2025 only, income exempt under the time test was capped at 40,000,000 CZK a year for shares, securities and company shares combined. From 1 January 2026 that cap no longer applies to securities and company shares. It still applies to crypto (see below).
Large tax-free amounts must still be reported. If a single exempt income is more than 5,000,000 CZK, you file a notification of exempt income (oznámení o osvobozených příjmech) with the tax office by the tax return deadline, even though no tax is due. Forgetting it can cost a fine of up to 15% of the income that was not reported.
Losses
Within § 10, a loss usually counts for nothing. Securities are the exception: losses from selling securities can be set off against gains from selling securities in the same year. A loss cannot be carried forward to a later year, and it cannot reduce your salary or rental income. Crypto is not a security, so whether a crypto loss can reduce a gain on shares depends on your situation; ask a tax advisor.
Crypto from 2025
Since 15 February 2025, crypto-assets have their own exemptions, close to those for shares:
| Rule | Crypto (from 15 February 2025) |
|---|---|
| Time test | Held for more than 3 years; time held before 2025 counts |
| Value test | Total crypto proceeds in the year at most 100,000 CZK, a separate limit from the one for shares |
| Cap on time-tested exemption | 40,000,000 CZK a year; above it only a proportional part is exempt |
| What counts as crypto | Crypto-assets in the sense of the EU MiCA regulation; e-money tokens do not qualify |
Taxable crypto profit is § 10 income. A taxable moment is not only a sale for euros or crowns: swapping one coin for another and paying for goods or services with crypto can also count as a transfer. Keep a record of every purchase, sale and swap, with the date, the amount and its value in CZK. Exchanges do not produce a Czech tax report for you.
Sales made before 15 February 2025 were always taxable. For 2025, only sales from that date counted towards the 100,000 CZK limit.
Shares and options from your employer
Restricted stock units (RSUs), discounted shares in an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) and stock options are part of your pay. The benefit is employment income (§ 6), valued at the market value of the shares, and social security and health insurance are due on it like on salary.
| Plan | What is taxed as salary |
|---|---|
| RSUs | The market value of the shares when they vest and become yours |
| ESPP | The discount: market value minus the price you paid |
| Stock options | Nothing when granted; at exercise, the market value minus the exercise price |
When it is taxed. Since 2024, a Czech employer can choose to postpone the tax on employee shares until the first of several events: you sell the shares, you leave the employer or its group, you or the employer stop being Czech tax resident, the employer goes into liquidation, or a maximum period passes. Since 1 January 2026 that maximum is 15 years (it was 10). The employer has to tell the tax office in time that it postpones; without that, the shares are taxed when you receive them.
Plans of a foreign parent company. In many international groups, the shares come from the parent abroad and the Czech payroll never sees them. If the Czech employer includes the benefit in its payroll, it appears on your yearly income statement and you do nothing more. If not, you declare it yourself as § 6 income in your tax return, in the year you received the shares; ask a tax advisor how social and health insurance are settled in that case. Ask your HR or payroll team first which applies to you, so it is not taxed twice.
Selling the shares later. A later sale is § 10 income like any share. The value already taxed as salary counts as your cost, so you only pay tax on the increase, and the 3-year time test runs from the day you received the shares.
Exchange rates
Amounts in foreign currency are converted to CZK. As a private investor you choose one of two methods and use it for the whole year:
- the single annual rate (jednotný kurz) published by the tax administration after the year ends, for all transactions of the year; or
- the daily rate of the Czech National Bank (ČNB) on the day of each transaction.
For a purchase in one year and a sale in another, each is converted with the rate that applies to its own date or year. The rates for recent years are in the exchange rates reference.
Broker statements: common mistakes
Foreign brokers and apps (for example Revolut, Trading 212, Interactive Brokers or eToro) make reports for their own country's tax rules, not for the Czech ones. Watch out for:
- Profit instead of proceeds. Reports show realised profit. The Czech value test looks at gross sale proceeds, so a small profit can still come from proceeds well above 100,000 CZK.
- Cost method. Brokers often use average cost or FIFO across all your purchases. The Czech time test is counted per purchase, so you need the date of each lot that was sold.
- Several accounts. The value test adds up sales at all brokers together.
- Interest and lending income. Interest on uninvested cash and income from share lending are § 8 income from abroad, often missing from the summary page.
- Withholding tax not shown, or shown at 30%. Check that your W-8BEN is valid; it expires after a few years.
- Currency. Reports in EUR or USD must be converted to CZK with one of the two methods above, not with the broker's own rate.
- Missing years. For the time test you need the purchase date, even if you bought at another broker years ago. Keep the old confirmations.
What to keep
- Purchase and sale confirmations for every lot, with dates and fees.
- The broker's yearly tax report and dividend statements, and form 1042-S for US income.
- Crypto: exchange exports and wallet records of every purchase, sale and swap.
- Employee shares: the vesting or purchase confirmations and your payslips.
Keep them for as long as the tax office can check the year: at least until the time test is long over for the shares you still hold.
Filing
With taxable investment income, or any dividends or interest from abroad, you file a personal income tax return even if your employer otherwise settles your tax. Quick general questions: ask Taxbot. And before you rely on a chatbot's answer about the "40 million limit" or crypto, read five things AI gets wrong about Czech tax.
This guide is general information, not personal tax advice. The rules depend on the details of your case.
Related
- Foreign income and double tax treaties
- Tax residency: why the 183-day rule is not the whole story
- Personal income tax return
Official sources: Income Tax Act No. 586/1992 Coll., § 4 (exemptions), § 6 (employment income and employee shares), § 8, § 10, § 16a and § 38v; amendments No. 32/2025 Coll. (crypto) and No. 360/2025 Coll. (40 million cap); financnisprava.gov.cz; Coordination Committee paper on crypto-assets (KV KDP, 2026).
