"I invoice a hundred thousand a month" sounds impressive. But how much of that actually stays with you? An employee sees the gap between gross and net on every payslip. An OSVČ — osoba samostatně výdělečně činná, a self-employed person — has to work it out alone. So let us do it properly, once: three worked examples for 2026, with every contribution counted and nothing rounded away.
What the contributions are calculated from
Take the most common setup: an OSVČ for whom the business is the main activity, claiming the 60% flat-rate expense deduction (the usual choice in the free trades, so also in IT, marketing and consulting). Three slices come off your invoicing:
- Income tax: 15% of the tax base (income minus expenses), less the basic taxpayer credit of 30,840 CZK. The 23% rate applies only to a base above 1,762,812 CZK.
- Social insurance: 29.2% of an assessment base equal to 55% of the tax base — but never below the statutory minimum. From July 2026 the minimum advance is 5,005 CZK a month; for January to June 2026 it was 5,720 CZK, but amendment no. 90/2026 Coll. lowered the minimum base retroactively from January, so the 715 CZK a month overpaid in the first half (4,290 CZK in total) is settled with the přehled and the annual minimum works out at 60,060 CZK (12 × 5,005).
- Health insurance: 13.5% of 50% of the tax base, at least 3,306 CZK a month (39,672 CZK a year).
Example 1: invoicing 50,000 CZK a month
Annual income 600,000 CZK, flat-rate expenses of 60% → tax base 240,000 CZK.
| Contribution | Calculation | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax | 15% of 240,000 − 30,840 | 5,160 CZK |
| Social insurance | 55% of the base is below the minimum → the minimum applies (12 × 5,005) | 60,060 CZK |
| Health insurance | 13.5% of half the base is below the minimum → the minimum applies | 39,672 CZK |
| Total contributions | 104,892 CZK |
That leaves you 495,108 CZK a year, roughly 41,300 CZK a month — about 82.5% of what you invoiced (assuming you have no real expenses on top). Notice that the tax itself is almost nothing thanks to the taxpayer credit; the overwhelming majority of what you pay is minimum insurance.
Example 2: invoicing 100,000 CZK a month
Annual income 1,200,000 CZK, tax base 480,000 CZK.
| Contribution | Calculation | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax | 15% of 480,000 − 30,840 | 41,160 CZK |
| Social insurance | 29.2% of 264,000 (55% of the base) | 77,088 CZK |
| Health insurance | 13.5% of 240,000 is below the minimum → the minimum applies | 39,672 CZK |
| Total contributions | 157,920 CZK |
Net: 1,042,080 CZK a year, about 86,800 CZK a month — just under 87% of your invoicing. The effective burden on an OSVČ using the flat-rate deduction rises surprisingly slowly: the minimum insurance that hurt at the lower income simply dissolves into a larger base here.
Example 3: invoicing 2,000,000 CZK a year
This is the ceiling for the 60% flat-rate deduction. Tax base 800,000 CZK: income tax 89,160 CZK, social insurance 128,480 CZK, health insurance 54,000 CZK — 271,640 CZK in total, leaving 1,728,360 CZK (86% of invoicing). Even just below the VAT registration threshold, an OSVČ keeps the effective burden at around 14%. For comparison, an employee who costs their employer a similar amount hands the state roughly twice as much.
And what about the paušální daň?
The obvious question is whether the flat tax (paušální daň) would be cheaper. A quick comparison for 2026:
| Invoiced per year | Standard regime (60% flat rate) | Flat tax | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 600,000 CZK | 104,892 CZK | Band I: 109,944 CZK | Standard regime |
| 1,200,000 CZK | 157,920 CZK | Band I (up to 1.5 million CZK when at least 75% of income comes from activities with the 60% or 80% flat rate): 109,944 CZK | Flat tax |
Once band I settled at 9,162 CZK a month for 2026, the flat tax comes out slightly worse financially for an OSVČ using the 60% deduction at lower income, but clearly better at higher income that still fits band I — and on top of that it brings the absence of paperwork: no tax return, no annual insurance statements (přehledy). The 9,984 CZK paid from January to June was reduced retroactively by amendment no. 90/2026 Coll., and the difference becomes an overpayment. Credits for children or for a spouse can only be claimed in the standard regime — at lower income they widen its lead, at higher income they can wipe out the flat tax's advantage.
So how much should you invoice?
Work backwards. To match the net pay of an employee on a gross salary of 60,000 CZK (roughly 47,000 CZK net), you need to invoice around 58,000 CZK a month. But an OSVČ pays for their own holiday, sick days and equipment, and for a pension that does not grow much on minimum contributions. That premium belongs in your hourly rate — we explain how to calculate it in How to set the price of your work as an OSVČ.
And if you would rather not do the arithmetic by hand: the Taxorio dashboard shows your paid income, your recorded expenses and an indicative estimate of income tax as the year goes on, and the public income tax calculator works out income tax, social and health insurance together. The answer to "how much of this is mine" is then visible all year, not only in April.
Taxorio scope: Taxorio provides invoicing and income/expense records for Czech sole traders. It is not full accounting or personalised tax advice. For an unsupported or unusual case, verify the treatment with a Czech accountant or tax adviser before filing.