Actual expenses and tax records for the self-employed (OSVČ) 2026

You claim actual expenses when your documented costs exceed the percentage allowance — and unlike the allowance, there is no income cap on which the expenses are calculated. It pays off mainly where you genuinely invest in your business: tradespeople buying materials (builders, joiners, plumbers, electricians) or e-shops selling goods, where the cost of purchasing and storing stock commonly exceeds 60 or even 80 % of revenue.

Rule of thumb: if your documentable expenses are higher than 60 % of income (unrestricted, regulated or concession trade) or 80 % of income (craft trade), actual expenses will reduce your tax base more than the lump-sum expense allowance. Conversely, for services with few input costs — consulting, IT, hairdressing without expensive equipment — the allowance tends to be more advantageous and, above all, simpler to administer.

A tax-deductible expense is anything you provably spent on achieving, securing and maintaining income (§ 24 of Act No. 586/1992 Coll., on Income Tax). In practice, most commonly:

• Materials and goods for further processing or resale.
• Rent for your business premises (provozovna), energy and related services.
• Phone and internet — if you also use them privately, you can only claim the proportional part corresponding to actual business use.
• Car: either the actual cost of fuel and servicing according to a logbook, or a transport allowance of 5,000 Kč per month for a vehicle used exclusively for business (max. 3 vehicles); if you also use the car privately, you can only claim the reduced allowance of 4,000 Kč (80 % of the full rate).
• Depreciation of long-term assets — an item with an acquisition cost above 80,000 Kč (workshop equipment, expensive technology) is not claimed in one go, but gradually over the depreciation category period.

The social and health insurance premiums paid by an OSVČ are not a tax expense — the same applies as under the lump-sum expense allowance; you cannot deduct the premiums from the tax base under either option. You can find the current amount of the mandatory advance payments on the website of the ČSSZ (Czech Social Security Administration).

If you claim actual expenses, you must keep tax records under § 7b of the Income Tax Act. This is not full bookkeeping — you don't keep double-entry records or a balance sheet, you only record two things:

• Income and expenses in chronological order, as they arise.
• Assets and liabilities — what you own and what you owe, as at the last day of the tax period.

For every item you need a document — an invoice, receipt or account statement; without it, the tax office will not recognise the expense. Keep your documents for at least as long as the tax office can additionally assess your tax, i.e. generally 3 years from the end of the deadline for filing the return; if you are a VAT payer, you keep VAT tax documents for 10 years. You can find detailed record-keeping rules on the website of the Tax Administration.