The General Financial Directorate (“GFD”) has issued Guidance No. GFD D-56 regulating the procedure of financial administration authorities in deciding on the waiver of a fine for failure to submit a notification of exempt income.

The notification obligation for taxpayers is enshrined in article 38v of Act No. 586/1992 Coll., on Income Taxes, as amended (“ITA”). This obligation applies to tax-exempt income, if it exceeds the amount of CZK 5,000,000 per individual income. The taxpayer is then obliged to notify the tax administrator of the receipt of income exceeding this threshold by the end of the deadline for submitting the tax return for the tax period, in which the income was received. 

If the notification obligation is not fulfilled (or the notification is submitted late), article 38w of the ITA introduces a penalty in the form of a fine for failure to report exempt income.

Penalties for failure to report exempt income

• 0.1 % of the amount of unreported income, if the taxpayer submits the notification additionally on his/her own without being invited by the tax administrator,
• 10 % of the amount of unreported income, if the taxpayer submits the notification within an additional period after the tax administrator’s request, or
• 15 % of the amount of unreported income, if the taxpayer does not submit a notification even within the additional period.

Waiver of penalty for failure to report exempt income

The aim of the GFD Guidance is to inform the tax administrator about the possible procedure, whereby the penalty for failure to report exempt income may be waived in whole or in part, if the failure was due to a reason that can be justified taking into account the circumstances of the case. 

In order for the fine to be waived, the basic condition must first be met that the taxpayer or a person, who is a member of its statutory body, has not seriously breached tax or accounting legislation in the last 3 years. 

In addition, the guidance sets out justifiable reasons for failure to comply with the obligation

• Adverse health condition of the taxpayer preventing compliance with the obligation to report exempt income,
• the taxpayer was affected by a natural disaster,
• filing a notice without a request from the tax administrator within 150 days after the expiry of the original statutory deadline,
• filing a notice at the request of the tax administrator within 120 days after the expiry of the original statutory deadline. 
• Finally, the guidance contains a procedural provision stating that the taxpayer is required to submit a written request for a waiver to the locally competent tax administrator. The maximum period for issuing a decision is set at 6 months from the date, on which the application was submitted. 

Autor: Roman Burnus, Marek Toráč