When you don't need a trade licence

The law defines a trade as an activity carried out continuously, independently, in one's own name, on one's own responsibility and for the purpose of achieving a profit (§ 2 of the Trade Licensing Act, No. 455/1991 Coll.). For it to count as a business, all of these features must be present simultaneously.

The key word is continuity. If you do something repeatedly and regularly — for instance, you sell vegetables in front of your house day after day throughout the season — the continuity condition is met and you need a trade licence (or registration as an agricultural entrepreneur), even if your income is low. Conversely, a genuinely incidental, one-off activity does not require a trade licence.

There are three typical ways to earn income legally without a trade authorisation. What they have in common is that they do not amount to continuous business — go through them below.

Occasional income is incidental, one-off, with no intention of repeating the activity on a continuous basis. It includes, for example, a one-off helping hand, the occasional sale of a few of your own products, the rental of an item or the occasional sale of property. For such income you do not need a trade licence or any other authorisation.

If the total of all occasional income for the tax period does not exceed 50,000 Kč per year (until 2023 the limit was only 30,000 Kč), this income is exempt from income tax and is not reported in the tax return — § 10(3)(a) of Act No. 586/1992 Coll., on income taxes (verified 2026; source: BusinessInfo.cz, Fakturoid).

Important: the 50,000 Kč limit applies to all occasional income combined, not to each type separately. And once the income exceeds the threshold, the whole amount is taxed (not just the portion above the limit) as other income under § 10 of the Income Tax Act.

A trade is not "the sale of unprocessed plant and animal products from the small-scale growing and husbandry of natural persons" — this is stated explicitly in § 3(3) of the Trade Licensing Act. It concerns surplus from the garden and farmyard: fruit, vegetables, potatoes, eggs and the like in unprocessed form. Small-scale sellers of surplus do not need to register anywhere.

You do, however, have to observe two conditions:

• Unprocessed state. Jams, syrups, dried fruit, baked goods or smoked meats are already processed — they are subject to a trade licence and food-hygiene rules. Selling surplus concerns only raw produce in its original form.
• Non-continuity. As soon as you sell daily, repeatedly throughout the whole season (seedlings in spring, vegetables in summer, potatoes in autumn — day after day in front of your house), the continuity condition is met and it already counts as a business. Then you need a trade licence or registration as an agricultural entrepreneur.

Source: § 3(3) of Act No. 455/1991 Coll., POHODA, Podnikatel.cz — verified 2026.

A livestock keeper may sell small quantities of their own products directly to the final consumer (or to local retail) under the "farm-gate sales" regime pursuant to Act No. 166/1999 Coll., on veterinary care (§ 27a / § 27b), and Decree No. 289/2007 Coll. Unlike mere surplus from the garden, however, registration with the regional veterinary administration (SVS) is required here — you notify it before commencing. The limits are in the table below.