Česká verze
Foreign companies may operate in the Czech Republic, either by establishing a branch office registered in the Czech Republic or by establishing a Czech company. The following document provides useful information on the process of establishing a new company under the Czech law.
Obtaining a business license
If you would like to get a business license (trade license or concession), you must submit an application to the Trade Office (or to Czech Point). These offices act as a contact point between businesses and public administration.
Czech Point – contact points for the public administration
Business registration
Within a maximum of five days, the Trade Licensing Office will enter your application in the Trade Register and provide you with confirmation of registration. This document will be appended to your trade licence or concession (concessions without confirmation documents are not valid).
Trade authorisations may still not be considered valid at this stage as you still have to register in the Commercial Register. Once completed, companies and cooperatives become legal persons, with all the rights and obligations associated with this.
Registration in the Commercial Register
Proceedings in matters of the Commercial Register include the registration court, which is usually the regional court in the location of the legal person or place of business of a natural person applying for entry in the Commercial Register. In the case of Prague, this would be the Municipal Court in Prague.
In most cases, the concerned person is obliged to file an application for entry in the Commercial Register. Applying for entry in the Commercial Register requires the payment of a court fee. This fee is 6,000 CZK in the case of first-time registration, i.e. your application is for a company not yet entered in the Commercial Register (with the exception of joint-stock companies, where the fee is 12,000 CZK).
In view of the fact that § 21 of the Public Registers Act, unlike § 32 paragraph 4 of the Commercial Code, does not mandate the Ministry of Justice to publish a list of annexes to attach to applications, the list of these annexes cannot be found on the Internet. It is therefore necessary to refer the matter to a law office or notary public.
Applications for entry in the Commercial Register and applications to amend existing registrations may be submitted only on the specific forms. Samples of these forms for all types of company may be found on the Ministry of Justice website.
- Commercial Register – electronic access
- Commercial Register – forms, addresses of registration courts
Registration for tax purposes
As of the date of entering a company in the Commercial Register, i.e. from the date of forming the company, the company has 15 days to register with the Tax Authority. Information regarding this registration can be found here:
Necessary steps and costs
A summary of bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs
This data was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relating to the life cycle of domestic companies with a minimum of 10 and maximum of 50 employees in 189 global economies.
It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy’s per-capita gross national income
Useful information
The following governmental and non-governmental institutions and web portals offer further information and useful services
- Notarial Chamber of the Czech Republic
- Official portal for business and export
- Portal of the public administration of the Czech Republic
Personalized help and advice
The Enterprise Europe Network is an extensive network (with 600 host organizations and 4,000 full-time staff) providing information and advice to entrepreneurs through its local partners.
SOLVIT provides entrepreneurs with quick and practical help where they face problems doing business abroad as a result of incorrect application of EU market rulesby public authorities.