Financial support for s.r.o

The Ministry of Finance heard comments of many self-employed persons who chose the s.r.o. form for their business about not being able to receive support under the popular Pětadvacítka compensation bonus program. According to the new law, partners in one- or two-member s.r.o., or multi-member s.r.o., in the case of family businesses, will be able to apply for support of CZK 500 per day for the period from 12 March to 8 June. 

The help is designed for small entrepreneurs damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, who have chosen the form of s.r.o. in their activities. Indeed, their business is often not very different materially from the self-employed, who already obtain state support,

Following the example of the Compensation bonus for self-employed persons (Pětadvacítka), the direct support will be paid in the form of a compensatory bonus of CZK 500 per day for the total period from 12 March to 8 June, i.e. a maximum of CZK 44,500. The program will be administered and paid by the Financial Administration, which has began accepting applications.

Whom is the support intended for?

The aid is aimed at active partners at the head of small s.r.o. companies, not for companies as such, nor passive investors. If the applicant is a partner in several companies in which he fulfils the conditions of the program, he will be entitled to support only once.

The support is intended for s.r.o. companies:

• with a maximum of two partners, where both can apply for the support, or
• with several partners who are members of the same family (direct kinship, sibling, spouse or partner under the Registered Partnership Act), in which case all partners can apply for the support.

However, the applicant cannot be an employee participating in sickness insurance at the same time (except for employment in the company, e.g. a contract as an executive, or an employment contract) and cannot draw an Antivirus (so-called kurzarbeit, or short-time working) contribution during the given period. Furthermore, the applicant cannot already draw the bonus from the title of a self-employed person. The right to apply for this financial support does not arise for partners in companies that were in bankruptcy, in liquidation or an unreliable payer (unreliable person) under the VAT Act during the bonus period.

The minimum provable turnover of the company will have to be CZK 180,000 for 2019 or the assumption of achieving such a turnover in 2020 or 2021. The company must also be a tax resident of the Czech Republic, the European Union or the European Economic Area. The applicant himself must then be an active partner of the company as of 12 March.

How to apply?

Applicants for a compensation bonus from among the partners of s.r.o. fill in a simple form, state the bank account in Czech currency and the identification of the company and send the application to the relevant tax office. The application can also be submitted simply by e-mail and attaching a scanned application with a handwritten signature.

The right to the payment of the bonus arises by signing an affidavit stating that in each calendar month for which the bonus is claimed, there was a day when the applicant’s activities could not be performed as usual due to the spread of coronavirus or crisis measures. Examples of such restrictions are the need to close or restrict an establishment, quarantine or care for the child of the applicant or his employee, limited demand for products and services or limited supply needed to carry out the activity.

It will be possible to claim a compensation bonus of CZK 500 per day if the legal conditions are met, both for the first bonus period from 12 March to 30 April 2020 and for the second bonus period from 1 May to 8 June 2020. Therefore, it will be possible to apply for the maximum amount of CZK 44,500. The application for the compensation bonus must be submitted separately for each bonus period (still on the same paper), no later than 60 days after the end of the relevant bonus period.

You can find the application form here (Czech only): //www.financnisprava.cz/cs/financni-sprava/media-a-verejnost/nouzovy-stav/Pomoc_spolecnikum_malych_sro/Zadost_pro_sro/Zadost-interaktivni_PDF

You can also apply via the application here (Czech only): //ouc.financnisprava.cz/kompenzace/form/bonus