Czech property tax (daň z nemovitých věcí) is a yearly tax on land and buildings, including flats. It is paid by whoever owns the property on 1 January of the year. It has nothing to do with your income or with renting the property out: rent goes in your income tax return, see renting out your apartment.
Who files a return, and when
You file a property tax return by 31 January of the year after something changed. In practice that means you file when, in the previous year:
- you bought, inherited or received a property as a gift, or sold or gave one away and still own other property in the same region;
- a building was finished or rebuilt, or its use changed (for example from living to business);
- something else changed that affects the tax, such as the area or the type of land.
If nothing changed, you do not file again: the return you filed once stays valid for the following years. When 31 January falls on a weekend, the deadline moves to the next working day; in 2026 it was 2 February.
A special case: when the land registry (katastr nemovitostí) records your purchase only after 31 December, for example because the application was filed in December, the deadline moves to the end of the third month after the month in which the registration was made.
The return goes to the tax office of the region (kraj) where the property is, not to your own tax office. One return covers all your properties in that region.
How the tax is calculated
The tax is not based on the value of the property but on its area:
- For a flat: the floor area, increased by a coefficient of 1.22, times a rate per square metre, times the coefficients below.
- For a house or other building: the built-up area, with an extra amount for each floor above the first.
- For land: either the area times a rate (building plots, gardens) or a percentage of an official land price (farm land).
Since 2024, the basic rates are about 80% higher than before, as part of the government's consolidation package. Since 2025, the tax is also multiplied by an inflation coefficient, which the Ministry of Finance sets each year; for 2026 it is 1.0, so it does not raise the tax by itself.
What still makes the tax differ from town to town are the local coefficients: each municipality can multiply the tax, for all property or only for certain types such as flats, recreational or business property, by a coefficient between 0.5 and 5. A few hundred municipalities change their coefficients every year. When only the municipality's coefficient changes, you do not file a new return: the tax office simply applies it.
For a typical flat in Prague, the yearly tax is a few hundred to a few thousand crowns; a house or business property can cost considerably more.
When and how you pay
- The tax is due by 31 May of the year. When that is a weekend, it moves to the next working day.
- When the tax is more than 5,000 CZK, you may pay it in two equal halves: by 31 May and by 30 November.
- The tax office assesses the tax itself; you do not calculate it in your return. It sends you the payment details; you can also ask to receive them by e-mail. Pay with the variable symbol from those details, not with a reference of your own.
- Late payment costs interest; a late return costs a penalty based on the tax.
Exemptions worth knowing
Some property is exempt, for example certain public, church or protected land. Exemptions must be claimed in the return; they are not applied automatically.
Tips for expats
- The tax office writes in Czech, by post or to your data box (datová schránka) if you have one. Keep your address at the tax office up to date when you move, also abroad.
- Selling the property does not end the tax for that year: whoever owned it on 1 January pays for the whole year.
- Bought together with your partner? Co-owners file one joint return through a common representative (společný zástupce) and are liable for the tax together.
- Selling later? Whether the sale is tax-free in your income tax return depends on how long you owned and lived in it; that is a separate matter.
We file the return for you, and tell you what to pay and when: see property tax return.
This guide is general information, not personal tax advice. Taxbot answers follow-up questions from our guides: ask Taxbot.
Related
- Property tax return (our service)
- Renting out your apartment: tax, expenses and Airbnb
- Personal income tax return (our service)
Official sources: Act No. 338/1992 Coll. on property tax (zakonyprolidi.cz); Financial Administration, property tax (financnisprava.cz).
