Property tax: deadlines, calculation, who files
Property tax (daň z nemovitých věcí) for 2027 is declared by 31 January 2027, and because that day falls on a Sunday, the deadline moves to the next working day, Monday 1 February 2027. The date does not depend on when you signed the purchase agreement (kupní smlouva) or when you took over the keys. It depends on a single day of the year and a single line on the title deed (list vlastnictví).
The taxpayer is whoever is the owner on 1 January
The status as at 1 January of the tax period (zdaňovací období) is decisive. Not the average owner over the year, not whoever used the flat all year. Whoever is entered as owner on 1 January pays the whole annual tax, even if they sold the property on 2 January. For the buyer, this means that the year of acquisition is, for tax purposes, still the seller’s year.
December is therefore the month in which we work out two dates side by side for every transaction. The legal effects of registration (právní účinky vkladu) arise retroactively as at the moment the application for registration (návrh na vklad) reached the cadastral office (katastrální úřad). If the application arrived on 29 December, the buyer is the owner as at 1 January, even though the Land Registry seal (plomba) stays on the title deed until February and the decision comes in March. If it arrived on 2 January, the entire tax liability shifts by a year. How the proceedings unfold day by day is covered in our text on the purchase agreement and registration in the Land Registry.
So three days at the turn of the year decide one entire tax cycle. We do not move a transaction because of it. But the buyer should know that they are getting not only the keys, but also a filing deadline at the start of the next year.
Property tax, acquisition tax, income tax: three different things
Since 2014 the Act has carried only the name immovable property tax and divides it into two parts: land tax (daň z pozemků) and the tax on buildings and units (daň ze staveb a jednotek). A flat is a taxable unit (zdanitelná jednotka), so it falls under the second part. A co-ownership share (spoluvlastnický podíl) in the land beneath an apartment building (bytový dům), if it forms part of the unit, is not taxed separately — it is reflected in the coefficient of 1.22 discussed below.
The real estate acquisition tax (daň z nabytí nemovitých věcí) has been abolished and is not taken into account. Income tax (daň z příjmů) on a sale is something else: it is paid by the seller, once, and is governed by the holding period test (časový test) — in detail in the text on income tax on a property sale. Property tax, by contrast, is a recurring tax on assets: it is paid again every year for as long as you own the property.
The return is filed once, not every year
A tax return (daňové přiznání) is not filed if the taxpayer (poplatník) has filed one for any of the previous tax periods and, compared with it, there has been no change in the circumstances decisive for determining the tax. Anyone who changes nothing about the property therefore files a return only once, after the purchase, and from then on just pays.
What counts as a change in the circumstances decisive for determining the tax
A change is an intervention in what is entered in the return: a different area after building alterations, occupancy approval (kolaudace) of an extension, division or merger of a unit, a change of use from a flat to non-residential premises (nebytový prostor), the end of an entitlement to an exemption (osvobození) other than by expiry of its term, a transfer of a share between co-owners.
A change, on the other hand, is not the municipality issuing a new decree with different coefficients, nor a change in the statutory rate. In such a case, the tax administrator (správce daně) recalculates the tax itself and sends a payment notice for a different amount. Anyone who files a return in such a year “just to be safe” gains nothing and, as a rule, creates needless proceedings for themselves.
When the Land Registry does not decide by the end of the year
A special rule targets precisely year-end transactions. If registration in the Land Registry (vklad do katastru) has not been approved by 31 December of the year in which the application was filed, the return is filed no later than the end of the third calendar month following the month in which the registration was entered. If the Land Registry (katastr nemovitostí) enters the registration in February 2027, the deadline is 31 May 2027, but the return is still filed for the 2027 tax period.
The tax base is the adjusted floor area, not the square metres from the advert
For a unit, the tax base is the floor area (podlahová plocha) in m² according to the status as at 1 January, multiplied by a coefficient of 1.22 if it is a unit in an apartment building that includes a share in the land, and 1.20 in other cases. The result is rounded up to whole m².
The figure that belongs in the return is the floor area of the unit from the Land Registry and, if it is not recorded there, from the owner’s declaration (prohlášení vlastníka) or the acquisition agreement. It is not the area from the advert (inzerát), it is not the “usable area” (užitná plocha), and it is not the sum of the dimensions on the floor plan if you add them up yourself. A cellar storage cage (sklepní kóje) or a box room (komora) is included if, under the owner’s declaration, it forms part of the unit. A balcony (balkon), loggia (lodžie) or terrace (terasa) is not — they are common parts of the building (společné části domu).
Rounding up has an unpleasant property: 82 m² × 1.22 gives 100.04 m², and four hundredths of a metre become a whole extra metre. That is why it pays to verify the starting area to one decimal place rather than estimate it.
Rate and coefficients: in Prague, this is where the amount is decided
The rate (sazba) for a unit used for housing is CZK 3.50 per m² of adjusted floor area (upravená podlahová plocha). For a garage, it is CZK 14.50 per m². The rate for the flat, not for the garage, is multiplied by the coefficient according to the size of the municipality (koeficient podle počtu obyvatel), which for Prague is 4.5 and which the municipality may raise to 5.0, and the tax is then multiplied by the inflation coefficient (inflační koeficient). That coefficient is 1.0 for 2026, the same as in 2025, and according to the announcement of the Ministry of Finance (Ministerstvo financí) of 14 July 2026 also for 2027, so on its own it does not increase the tax.
Prague works with coefficients on three levels at once, under Prague’s Generally Binding Decree (obecně závazná vyhláška) No. 11/2024 as amended by Decree No. 12/2025:
- Coefficient by city district (městská část) under Annex 1: 5 in Prague 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8; 4.5, for example, in Prague 2, 4, 9, 10 and 11.
- Local coefficient for the municipality (místní koeficient): 1.5 throughout Prague. It does not apply if another local coefficient applies to the property.
- Local coefficient for a group of properties: garages 3, recreational buildings 3, buildings and units used for business 3, other taxable buildings 1.5.
- Local coefficient for a city district under Annex 2: 2 in Prague 3, 6 and 7, in Kolovraty, Petrovice and Slivenec; 1.7 in Prague 8. Where it meets the group coefficient, the higher of the two applies.
So two flats of the same area in Prague 2 and in Prague 7 do not pay the same — and the difference is not a matter of tens of crowns.
Annex: step-by-step tax calculation for a model flat in Prague
Model unit: a 3+kk flat (three rooms plus a kitchenette) in an apartment building in Vinohrady, city district Prague 2, floor area of the unit under the owner’s declaration 82 m² (flat 77.3 m² and cellar storage cage 4.7 m²). Tax period 2026, inflation coefficient 1.0.
| Line | Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Floor area of the unit from the owner’s declaration | — | 82 m² |
| 2 | Coefficient for a unit in an apartment building with a share in the land | × 1.22 | 100.04 m² |
| 3 | Tax base rounded up to whole m² | — | 101 m² |
| 4 | Basic rate for a residential unit | — | CZK 3.50/m² |
| 5 | Coefficient for Prague 2 under Annex 1 | × 4.5 | CZK 15.75/m² |
| 6 | Tax rounded up to whole crowns | 101 × 15.75 = 1,590.75 | CZK 1,591 |
| 7 | Inflation coefficient for 2026 | × 1.0 | CZK 1,591 |
| 8 | Local coefficient for the municipality (Prague 2 is not in Annex 2) | × 1.5 | CZK 2,386.50 |
| 9 | Tax rounded up to whole crowns | — | CZK 2,387 |
The tax does not exceed CZK 5,000, so it is payable in one sum by 31 May.
Variant with a separate garage unit of 14 m² in the same building, i.e. for the same taxpayer and the same tax administrator:
| Line | Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Floor area of the garage unit | × 1.22 | 17.08 m² → 18 m² |
| 11 | Rate for a garage | — | CZK 14.50/m² |
| 12 | The coefficient of 4.5 does not apply to a garage | — | CZK 14.50/m² |
| 13 | Tax before the local coefficient | 18 × 14.50 | CZK 261 |
| 14 | Local coefficient for the group of garages | × 3 | CZK 783 |
| 15 | Total, flat and garage | 2,387 + 783 | CZK 3,170 |
Two conclusions follow from this sheet that cannot be read from flat-rate tables. First: in Prague 2, a square metre of garage is taxed almost twice as much as a square metre of flat, because the higher rate and the double local coefficient outweigh even the missing coefficient of 4.5. Second: even with the garage, the tax does not exceed CZK 5,000, so a single payment by 31 May remains; two instalments, by 31 May and by 30 November, apply only to a higher tax. In 2027 both dates fall on working days, a Monday and a Tuesday, so the deadline does not move.
A note on ownership structure: the model treats the garage as a separate unit. If the parking space is held as a co-ownership share in a garage unit, either one co-owner declares the tax for the whole unit on behalf of all, or each declares it only in the amount of their share.
What we do about the tax at handover and where our approach has a weak spot
In the handover protocol (předávací protokol) we write a separate line with the deadline for filing the return, the cadastral area (katastrální území), the unit number and the title deed number, and we attach a sheet with the calculation in the same structure as above — stating all three coefficients and referring to the decree they are taken from. In addition, we record in the protocol the date on which the application for registration reached the cadastral office, because it is precisely this date that determines which year belongs to whom.
This approach has three weak spots, and it is fair to name them. We are not tax advisers (daňový poradce), and we neither file nor sign returns on behalf of clients; our sheet is supporting material, not a tax claim (daňové tvrzení), and anyone who confuses the two is relying on something that does not vouch for them. Next: coefficients are changed by a generally binding decree, and our sheet freezes the status of one year, so a calculation handed over in 2026 may be incorrect two years later. And finally, we send the reminder in January, the month in which people read it least attentively; we are considering moving it to December, but then it would get lost among the holidays.
Frequently asked questions
When is the property tax return filed?
By 31 January of the tax period, i.e. by 31 January of the year following the year of purchase. If that day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day.
I bought a flat in December — who pays the tax for next year?
The buyer, if the application for registration reached the cadastral office before the end of the year. What decides is the moment the application was delivered, not the date of the office’s decision or the date the flat was handed over.
Do I have to file a return every year?
No. It is filed once, and again only when there is a change in the circumstances decisive for determining the tax. A change in the rate or in the municipality’s coefficient is not one of them — the tax administrator recalculates the tax itself.
How much is the tax on a flat in Prague?
For the model 82 m² flat in Prague 2, the calculation above gives CZK 2,387 a year. In a city district with a coefficient of 5 and a local coefficient of 2, the amount will be considerably higher; the coefficients of the specific city district are what decide.
What happens if I file the return late?
Under § 15a of Act No. 338/1992 Coll., on Immovable Property Tax (zákon o dani z nemovitých věcí), no penalty arises if you file it late on your own, without a request from the tax administrator. After a request, the penalty is calculated under § 250 of Act No. 280/2009 Coll., the Tax Code (daňový řád): 0.05 % of the assessed tax per day of delay, at most 5 %, and it is not imposed below CZK 1,000. Late payment is also subject to default interest (úrok z prodlení).
Conclusion
Property tax is one of the few obligations in a property transaction that can be calculated in advance to the exact crown, and yet it is easily forgotten. There are few inputs: the area from the Land Registry or the owner’s declaration, the rate, three coefficients and the date the application for registration was delivered. Anyone who notes them down at handover has certainty for the whole period of ownership and does not need to come back to the subject. Anyone who leaves them until January is looking them up when the deadline is already running.