[Czech Republic] Antivirus – current information

COVID-19 still has a negative impact on the Czech economy, so the government decided to extend both regimes A and B of the Antivirus project. The regimes are valid until August 31^st, 2020 and employers can request a partial compensation of employers’ payroll costs caused by obstacles to work on employer’s side.

Czech Republic

From the beginning, Antivirus C is valid for the months of June, July and August. However, unlike the first two regimes, this is not a financial subsidy from the government, but a social insurance waiver. In this article, we will look at it in more detail.

Let’s repeat the basic conditions for the waiver of social insurance, which the employer is obliged to pay for its employees:

• the number of employed employees participating in sickness insurance does not exceed 50 on the last day of the month
• this number must represent at least 90% of the same number as of March 31^st, 2020
• the assessment base for all employees (not agreements, statutory representatives etc.) for a given month represents at least 90% of the assessment base for the month of March 2020
• the employer paid insurance for employees for the given month within the due date
• the employer does not participate in the Antivirus program (A or B) for the given month
• insurance may not be reduced for employees who have been dismissed for a reason in § 52 a) – c) of the Labor Code or for employees whose employment did not last on the last day of the given month

Ad 1) This applies only for employees in employment. When determining the number of employees in March, June, July and August, we do not take into account workers with agreements on working activity, agreements to complete a job, statutory representatives or employees who are subject to the legislation of another country for the purposes of social insurance.

Ad 2) The same rules mentioned above apply here.

Ad 3) It’s not important why the assessment base is lower. If the assessment base in the month for which we want to apply for insurance waiver doesn’t reach 90% of March’s assessment base just because the employer paid out annual bonuses in March, or some of the employees started maternity leave or got sick, the condition is not met and the employer is not entitled to the waiver of insurance. The restriction in the form of a maximum assessment base shall not apply for this purpose. The percentage of the assessment base is checked on the basis of an “unlimited” basis, not the final one, which is stated in the overview of the insurance payment and from which the insurance is paid. Furthermore, the assessment base cannot be reduced if the employer had no employee participating in sickness insurance in March (here it’s not important whether the employee was employed or in another employment relationship).

Ad 6) The assessment base for a specific employee who was dismissed for the given reasons cannot be reduced for the month in which the notice was given, thus if the employee was given a notice on June 29^th 2020, the assessment base for this employee cannot be reduced for June and the insurance has to be calculated and paid from the full base of this employee. On the contrary, if the notice was given on July 1^st, 2020 and the insurance for June is due July 20^th, 2020, we can reduce the insurance for this employee for June, as the notice wasn’t received in June.

It is still valid that employers listed in § 109 par. 3 of the Labor Code (government entities, territorial units etc.), employers, who are not tax residents of the Czech Republic or another EEA state (under other conditions) as of June 1^st, 2020, and health care providers who draw other compensation in connection with COVID-19 are excluded from this help.

The reduction for each employee is limited to the assessment base of 52.253 CZK.

Added on August 11^th, 2020:

Above we inform you that social insurance may not be reduced for employees who have been dismissed for one of the reasons in § 52 a) – c) of the Labor Code. As the Czech Social Security Office states on its website, the situation is different when an agreement on termination of employment was concluded with this employee for the same reason. Contrary to the dismissal, the existence of such an agreement does not preclude a reduction of this employee’s assessment base, even though the agreement was concluded for one of the reasons in § 52 a) – c) of the Labor Code.

Learn more about our services