"Do I have to open a business account as an OSVČ, or can clients simply pay into my personal current account?" — one of the most common questions from people starting out. The short answer: no law requires you to have a business account. The longer answer: your bank often wants one anyway, a VAT payer has to report their accounts to the tax office, and above a certain amount a payment cannot be settled in cash at all. Here is the whole picture.
What the law says: there is no obligation
No Czech law says an OSVČ must keep a separate account for business. Unlike a limited company (s. r. o.), a self-employed individual has no business assets separated from personal ones — you are liable with everything you own — and the same goes for your money. You can perfectly well have invoices paid into your personal current account, and the tax office will not object.
That is where the good news ends, because three practical constraints come into play: your bank's terms and conditions, the rules for VAT payers, and the limit on cash payments.
Banks: personal accounts often forbid business use
The state may not mind you running a business through a personal account, but your bank may. The terms and conditions of personal accounts at a number of Czech banks expressly prohibit using the account for business purposes. If the bank notices dozens of invoice payments arriving every month, it can ask you to move to a business account — and in the worst case close the account.
VAT payers: report the account and watch that it is published
Once you become a VAT payer, the rules tighten. Under § 96 of the VAT Act you must notify the tax administrator of the numbers of all accounts you use for your economic activity — and say which of them is to be published in the register of VAT payers. It can perfectly well be your personal account; what matters is that it is reported and published.
Why does this matter? Because of the guarantee under § 109 of the VAT Act: whoever pays for a taxable supply into a supplier's account that is not published in the register can be made to guarantee the VAT the supplier failed to remit. The guarantee used to apply only to payments above 540,000 CZK, but since the amendment effective in 2025 it applies regardless of the amount. Corporate customers therefore check their suppliers' published accounts as a matter of routine.
The cash limit: above 270,000 CZK it has to be a transfer
One more statutory boundary. Under Act no. 254/2004 Coll., on the limitation of cash payments, anyone making a payment above 270,000 CZK must make it by transfer — and the recipient must not accept it in cash. All payments from the same payer to the same recipient within one calendar day count towards the limit, including payments in foreign currency converted at the ČNB rate. Larger jobs therefore cannot be settled without a bank account.
Personal versus separate account: a practical comparison
| Aspect | Personal account | Separate (business) account |
|---|---|---|
| Legal obligation | None | None |
| Bank's terms | Business use often prohibited | No restriction |
| Register of VAT payers | Can be reported and published | Can be reported and published |
| Overview of the business | Private and business payments mixed together | A clean picture of income and expenses |
| Tax inspection | The tax office sees your private spending too | You show only business movements |
The last two rows are what usually decides it. When the tax office asks for statements from the account you do business through, a mixed account also shows your private payments. And above all: with a separate account you know at any moment how much the business is actually earning — payments for invoices do not get lost among groceries and subscriptions.
Getting the most out of the account
A separate account is only the start; the real time saving comes when you stop ticking payments off by hand. That is what the Bank section in Taxorio is for: switch on your bank's e-mail notifications of incoming payments and forward them to your Taxorio address. The app reads the amount and the variable symbol out of them and matches the payment to the invoice automatically (a feature of the PRO plan) — we describe exactly how it works in Automatic matching of bank payments.
And so that clients pay quickly and without mistyping the account number or the variable symbol, put a payment QR code on your invoices — the client only confirms the payment in their banking app.
Summary
An OSVČ is not obliged by law to have a business account — but a bank's terms often forbid business use of a personal one, a VAT payer must report their accounts to the tax office and keep an eye on their publication in the register, and payments above 270,000 CZK a day must go by transfer. In practice: a separate account costs a few crowns, saves hours of digging through statements, and protects your privacy during a tax inspection. And with automatic payment matching you barely have to look after it.
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.