On 19 August, the Czech Senate returned the sales registration bill to the Chamber of Deputies with amendments — including one that would exempt card payments. What this means for the 1 January 2027 date, what the approved text already settles and what to prepare now.
The Senate neither approved nor rejected the bill
A month ago we reported that the Chamber of Deputies approved the return of sales registration on 15 July. Yesterday, 19 August 2026, the bill reached the Senate — and senators sent it back to the deputies with amendments. The opposition's motion to reject the bill outright failed, but the Senate also declined the Ministry of Finance's request to pass it unchanged.
The most significant amendment concerns the register directly: cashless payments would be exempt from registration. Only cash would be registered, while card and QR payments would stay outside the system. The other changes are an exemption for selling one's own farm produce directly at the place of production and removing the cap on tax-exempt health benefits for employees.
Finance Minister Alena Schillerová firmly opposed exempting cashless payments: introducing EET ten years on, based practically only on cash, would in her words not be a modernization but a step backwards.
What happens next: the Chamber decides
The bill now returns to the Chamber of Deputies, which is expected to take it up again in September. Deputies have two options: accept the version with the Senate's amendments, or stand by their original version. The latter requires, under the Constitution, an absolute majority of all deputies — at least 101 votes. The governing coalition has enough of them, so the original text is the most likely outcome. After that, the law still needs the president's signature and publication in the Collection of Laws.
For now, the planned timeline is unchanged. The approved text sets the effective date at 1 January 2027, with the provisions on certificates and on registering business premises applying from 1 November 2026 at the earliest. The Senate round has added a few weeks to the process, but there is still plenty of time before November.
The one thing that is genuinely open is the scope: if the Senate version were to prevail, card payments would not be registered. Still, plan for the version the government is pushing — registration of both cash and cards.
What the approved text settles
The Senate amendments don't touch the technical side of registration, so that part of the approved text is settled. Every registered sale is sent to the Financial Administration as an XML data message with a minimal set of data: the business's tax ID, the designation of the registration unit, the designation of the POS device, the sequential number of the sale, date and time, the total amount in Czech crowns and an identifier of the message. For vouchers and prepayments, the amounts loaded and redeemed are sent as well. No line items, no VAT, no customer data.
A registration unit isn't only a bricks-and-mortar premises. The law also lists a website or app and a vehicle used to sell goods or services — which matters for food trucks, for example. Only contact payments are registered, though: those made in person or on the premises.
Two numbers anyone selling outdoors or on a weak signal will appreciate: the register must wait at least 2 seconds for confirmation from the Financial Administration, and if no response comes back, the sale can be sent later — within 48 hours. The law does not introduce any obligation to issue a receipt.
What to prepare now
Before registration starts, you'll need two steps in the tax information box: first, report all registration units through which you sell (identification, type, main business activity), and only then obtain a sales registration certificate. Both should be possible from 1 November 2026 at the earliest. But you can already list everywhere you sell — premises, stalls, vehicles — and on which devices. Mind the deadlines too: any change in a unit's details must be reported before the first sale after the change, and no later than 15 days after it.
Once the Chamber decides in September, we'll write about which version applies.