The House Budget Committee today supported the proposal that Czech Television and Czech Radio be able to claim value added tax deductions to the current extent until the end of 2024. They will be able to apply them in the same way as commercial companies. The possibility of wider deductions would otherwise end at the end of this year. The committee supported the proposal submitted by the chairman of the ODS parliamentary group, Zbyněk Stanjura, to the government’s amendment to the VAT Act. The draft is still pending in plenary at second and third reading. It could take place in April.
The Ministry of Finance stated in the material for deputies that the change would represent a total of one billion crowns by 2024. When asked by ČTK, it stated that in the long run it prefers a gradual systematic reduction of tax exemptions. Today, the committee took a neutral position. Both KSČM deputies in the committee and the Social Democrat Václav Votava also voted in favor of Stanjur’s proposal.
The provision allowing wider tax deductions came into force in 2017. A year later, the government proposed to repeal it in the government tax package. At that time, Czech Television estimated the loss of revenue at 350 to 400 million and Czech Radio at 120 million per year. However, the House extended its validity until the end of this year. Public service television and radio stations were not previously entitled to deduct tax on goods and services invoiced by their supplier with the output tax they purchased for their operation and production of programs. For example, in 2015, according to its annual report, ČT paid 593 million crowns in VAT to the state budget, without the right to a deduction.
Last December, the General Director of the Czech Television, Petr Dvořák, asked Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) to extend this provision. Dvořák stated at the time that thanks to maintaining VAT refunds, television could maintain the broadcasting of the ČT3 program or invest more money in culture, for example through the newly emerging audiovisual fund, and in sports. Babiš promised him at the time that he would discuss this proposal with the Minister of Finance Alena Schillerová (for YES).
The government’s amendment to the VAT Act primarily abolishes the VAT exemption for the import of small consignments from countries outside the EU. The committee could not support the proposals of the chairman of KDU-ČSL Marian Jurečka to increase the limit for mandatory registration of VAT payers to 1.5 or two million crowns. He also did not support the proposal of deputies Václav Votava (ČSSD) and Jakub Janda (ODS) to reduce the limit for VAT refunds to tourists from third countries for purchased goods from CZK 2,000 to CZK 1,000.
Source: CTK
