Social and health contributions when self-employed in Czechia

As a self-employed person (OSVČ) in Czechia, you pay for your own pension insurance and, if you're in Czech public health insurance, your health insurance. You pay advances each month, then file two annual overviews after your tax return and settle the difference. How much depends mostly on whether your business is your main activity or a secondary one next to a job. All figures here are for 2026; the minimums change each January with the average wage.

Is my business a main or a secondary activity?

It's a secondary activity (vedlejší činnost) if, during the same time, you're also one of these:¹

• an employee who is sickness-insured through the job;
• drawing an invalidity or old-age pension;
• entitled to maternity benefit from a job, or personally caring for a child under 4 or a dependent person;
• a dependent child, such as a student.

Otherwise it's your main activity (hlavní činnost). You prove the reason for a secondary activity by the end of the month after you file your overview.²

What do I pay for pension insurance?

Pension insurance is 29.2 % of your assessment base, which is 55 % of your profit.³ During the year you pay advances based on last year's profit, but never less than the minimum.⁴

For a main activity in 2026:

• Minimum advance: 5,720 Kč a month from January to June, and 5,005 Kč from July, after the minimum base fell from 40 % to 35 % of the average wage.^{5 6} If you paid the higher amount in the first half, you can ask your social security office in writing by 31 December 2026 to return the difference; if you don't, it counts towards your 2026 contributions when your overview is settled.⁶
• Starting out: if you haven't been self-employed in the previous 20 years, your minimum is 3,575 Kč a month in your first year and the two after it.⁵
• No advances at first: if you haven't been self-employed in the previous 5 years, you don't pay advances in the year you start or the year after. You pay what you owe after your overview instead.⁷ This doesn't apply in the flat-rate regime.

For a secondary activity, you pay pension insurance only once your profit for the year passes the decisive amount: 117,521 Kč for 2026, less 9,794 Kč for each month you weren't active.⁵ If you join voluntarily instead, the minimum advance is 1,574 Kč a month.⁵

The advance for a month is due within that month. For the month you start, you have until the end of the following month.⁸

What do I pay for health insurance?

Health insurance is 13.5 % of your assessment base, which is 50 % of your profit.⁹ In your first year you pay the minimum advance; after that, advances follow last year's profit.¹⁰ For a main activity in 2026, the minimum is 3,306 Kč a month.¹¹ Each advance is due by the 8th of the next month.¹²

There's no minimum if you're also an employee whose job pays health insurance on at least the employees' minimum, or if the state pays your insurance, for example as a student or pensioner. Then you pay no advances and settle after the overview.¹³

If you're a non-EU national without permanent residence and have no job with a Czech employer, you're usually not in Czech public health insurance and keep private cover instead.¹⁴ Health insurance explains who is in public insurance.

What are the annual overviews, and when are they due?

After your tax return, you file an overview of income and expenses (přehled o příjmech a výdajích) to ČSSZ and another to your health insurer, within a month of your tax return deadline.^{2 15} Every sole trader files them, even after a loss.⁵

For 2025, the dates were:¹⁶

1. 4 May 2026, if you or your adviser filed the tax return by 1 April.
2. 4 June 2026, if you filed your tax return online after 1 April.
3. 3 August 2026, if a tax adviser filed it after 1 April.

For 2026, by our count from the law (ČSSZ hasn't published them yet), the dates are 3 May, 3 June and 2 August 2027 in the same three cases: 1 May 2027 is a Saturday and a holiday, and 1 August 2027 is a Sunday.^{2 16}

The health insurance overview is filed only online.¹⁵ If the overview shows you owe more than you paid in advances, pay the difference within 8 days of filing the overview, or of its deadline if you file late.¹⁷ The overview also sets your advances for the year ahead.

What is the flat-rate regime?

The flat-rate regime (paušální režim) replaces your income tax, pension insurance and health insurance with one fixed monthly payment, due by the 20th.¹⁸ If your tax equals the flat tax, you file no tax return and no overviews.¹⁹

The 2026 bands:¹⁸

• Band I: 9,162 Kč a month, for income up to 1,000,000 Kč a year (more for some kinds of work).
• Band II: 16,745 Kč a month, for income up to 1,500,000 Kč (more for some kinds of work).
• Band III: 27,139 Kč a month, for income up to 2,000,000 Kč.

Band I fell from 9,984 Kč to 9,162 Kč from July 2026, backdated to January; the Financial Administration explains how the overpayment is returned.¹⁸

To enter, you must be self-employed under Czech pension and health insurance, not a VAT payer and not employed, and send the tax office a notice by 10 January, or by the day you start a new business. For 2027, the deadline is 11 January 2027, because 10 January is a Sunday.²⁰ Because it needs Czech public health insurance, it's usually not open to non-EU nationals without permanent residence.¹⁴

Should I pay for sickness insurance?

Sickness insurance (nemocenské pojištění) is voluntary for the self-employed. It costs 2.7 % of a base you choose, at least 243 Kč a month in 2026, and it ends if you stop paying.²¹ It pays sickness benefit from the 15th day of an illness, and maternity, paternity and carer's benefits.^{21 22}

For maternity benefit, you need 270 days of insurance in the two years before, of which at least 180 days as a self-employed person in the last year.²²

Sources

1. Pension Insurance Act (Act 155/1995 Coll.), §9(6). ↩

2. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §15(1). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §5b(1) and §7(1)(e). ↩

4. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §14(5). ↩

5. Czech Social Security Administration, Self-employed in brief (OSVČ v kostce), figures for 2026, read 28 October 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

6. Czech Social Security Administration, change in pension insurance from 1 July 2026, and Act 90/2026 Coll., the amendment and its transitional provisions. ↩ ↩²

7. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §14(9). ↩ ↩²

8. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §14a(1). ↩ ↩²

9. Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §2 and §3a(1) and (2). ↩

10. Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §8(1) and (2). ↩

11. General Health Insurance Company (VZP), health insurance payments in 2026. ↩

12. Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §7(2). ↩ ↩²

13. Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §3a(3) and §8(3). ↩ ↩²

14. Public Health Insurance Act (Act 48/1997 Coll.), §2(1). ↩ ↩²

15. Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §24(2) and (7). ↩ ↩²

16. Czech Social Security Administration, overview of income and expenses, read 28 October 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

17. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §14a(3), and Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §8(5). ↩

18. Financial Administration, flat-rate tax for 2025 and 2026, read 28 October 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

19. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §38g(7), and Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §15(1). ↩

20. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §2a(1) and (2) and §38lc, and Tax Code (Act 280/2009 Coll.), §33(4). ↩ ↩²

21. Czech Social Security Administration, Self-employed in brief (OSVČ v kostce), and Sickness Insurance Act (Act 187/2006 Coll.), §11 and §26(1). ↩ ↩²

22. Sickness Insurance Act (Act 187/2006 Coll.), §32(2) and (3). ↩ ↩²

23. Premiums for Social Security Act (Act 589/1992 Coll.), §20(1), and Premiums for Public Health Insurance Act (Act 592/1992 Coll.), §18(1). ↩