The Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court) today announces a ruling on a tax package that was not signed by President Miloš Zeman, raising doubts about the constitutionality of its adoption. A motion for annulment was filed in January by a group of senators, for whom David Smoljak met with lawyer and MEP Stanislav Polčák (both STAN).
The tax package, which, among other changes, abolished the super-gross wage, for example, was announced in the Collection of Laws last year on New Year’s Eve and entered into force the following day. Senators point to the fact that the president did not sign the law and returned it to the Chamber of Deputies, which, according to them, he probably vetoed by mistake. The lower house was to vote on the package again, which did not happen. The law was signed only by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES) and House Deputy Speaker Vojtěch Filip (KSČM).
In a note to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies on December 28, 2020, Zeman explicitly stated that he had decided not to affix his signature and that the law was returning “to the next measure”. He also mentioned his reservations about the law. Both the castle and the government insist that the president did not veto the law, but only did not sign it, which Zeman emphasized in another memorandum dated 31 December.
According to senators, the president can not sign the law only if he returns it to the Chamber at the same time, thus vetoing it. “There has been a clear violation of the formal requirements that the Constitution associates with the process of passing laws,” the senators’ proposal said. They also do not like the fact that instead of the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Radek Vondráček (YES), the law was signed by Vice-Chairman Filip.
The tax package abolished the super-gross wage. Instead, personal income taxation came at a rate of 15 and 23 percent. The annual tax rebate per taxpayer also increased by CZK 3,000 and the rate of excise duty on diesel decreased by CZK 1 per liter.
Source: CTK
