An invoice takes five steps: fill in your own and the customer's identification details, describe what you supplied, state the price and the tax treatment, set the document number and the dates, and check everything before you send it. How much of that is legally required depends mainly on whether you are registered for VAT and on who the customer is. The due date, the payment method and the QR code are practical payment details, not automatic legal requirements of every invoice.
Issuing invoices as an OSVČ: what applies in 2026
OSVČ is the Czech term for a self-employed person — a sole trader running their own business. If you are registered for DPH (daň z přidané hodnoty, Czech VAT), you must issue a tax document in the situations set out by law, as a rule within 15 days of the obligation arising. If you are not registered, the tax-document rules of the VAT Act do not apply to you, but you still need a credible document for your own records and for the commercial relationship with the customer.
When you have to issue an invoice
The obligation is governed mainly by Section 28 of Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax. A VAT-registered person must issue a tax document within 15 days of the date of the taxable supply, or of the date a payment (an advance) was received, where the supply is made to another taxable person or to a non-taxable legal entity.
If you are not registered for VAT, the VAT Act does not oblige you to issue an invoice at all. You still need one for your own tax records, and customers normally ask for it, so in practice almost every sole trader invoices.
Mandatory details when you are registered for VAT
Under Section 29 of the VAT Act, a tax document must contain:
- Identification of the supplier — business name, or first name and surname, plus the registered seat or place of business
- The supplier's DIČ (daňové identifikační číslo, the Czech tax identification number)
- Identification of the customer — name, or first name and surname, plus the registered seat or place of business
- The customer's DIČ, if the customer is registered for VAT
- The registration number of the tax document — a unique sequential number
- The date of issue
- The date of the taxable supply (DUZP), or the date the payment was received, where it differs from the date of issue
- The extent and subject of the supply — a description of the goods or the service
- The tax base
- The VAT rate — two rates apply in 2026: 21 % (standard) and 12 % (reduced)
- The amount of VAT in Czech currency
- The unit price excluding tax and any discount, where the discount is not already reflected in that unit price
Czechia has had only two VAT rates since 2024. The earlier reduced rates of 10 % and 15 % were merged into a single reduced rate of 12 % by the consolidation package, and that still holds in 2026.
What an invoice should contain if you are not registered for VAT
Your invoice is simpler: you state neither the VAT rate nor the VAT amount, and you do not need the DUZP. It should still carry:
- Your name (or business name), address and IČO — the eight-digit Czech business identification number
- The customer's details (name, address, IČO)
- The invoice number
- The date of issue
- A description of the goods or services supplied
- The total amount payable
- Payment details (bank account number, variable symbol)
It is good practice to add the note "Nejsem plátce DPH" ("I am not registered for VAT"), so the customer knows straight away that there is no VAT to deduct.
How to number invoices
The law requires invoice numbers to form an unbroken sequence. Several formats work well in practice:
- 2026-001, 2026-002, … — year plus a sequential number
- FV2026001 — the prefix FV (faktura vydaná, issued invoice) with the year and the number
- 20260001 — the year built straight into the number
Pick the system that suits you and keep it for the whole year. You may run a single sequence for all invoices or separate ones (for domestic and foreign customers, say), but each sequence has to be unbroken.
Taxorio uses fixed automatic numbering in the YYYYXXXX format — a four-digit year and a four-digit sequential number, for example 20260001. The sequential part is assigned automatically within the year, so a number cannot be skipped or issued twice.
Due date and payment terms
Czech law sets no mandatory payment period. Fourteen days is the most common choice; thirty days is usual in construction and some other sectors. Between businesses the term is a matter of contract. Default interest for late payment is governed by Act No. 89/2012 Coll. (the Civil Code, Section 1970), with the rate set by Government Regulation No. 351/2013 Coll. (the ČNB repo rate plus 8 percentage points).
Always put on the invoice:
- The payment method — bank transfer, cash, card
- The bank account number, with the bank code or as an IBAN
- The variable symbol (variabilní symbol) — the payment reference Czech banks match payments by, typically the invoice number or part of it
- The due date
QR payment codes
Czech invoices commonly carry a payment QR code in the SPD format (Short Payment Descriptor). The customer scans it in a mobile banking app and the payment order fills itself in — account number, amount, variable symbol — with no room for a typo.
What you get from it:
- The customer pays with fewer steps and fewer errors
- You reduce the risk of a mistyped variable symbol, which is what usually makes a payment hard to match
- The document looks like it came from an established business
In Taxorio, once you switch QR payments on in the settings and fill in your bank account, the app puts an SPD code on invoices with a positive amount — provided you have a bank account in the invoice currency. Nothing else is needed beyond correct bank details in your profile.
The invoice as a PDF
You can send an invoice electronically as a PDF — it has the same legal standing as a paper one, and most customers now prefer it.
Taxorio offers three PDF templates — Aurora, Modern and Classic. Each lays out the required details and an itemised breakdown, and the generated PDF can go straight to the customer.
Customer details without the retyping
To issue an invoice you need the customer's company name, address, IČO and, where relevant, DIČ. Copying that by hand out of the commercial register is slow and easy to get wrong.
Taxorio can pull customer details from the ARES register (the Czech administrative register of economic entities) by IČO. Enter the eight-digit number and the app fills in the company name, seat and the rest. For customers elsewhere in the EU you can check the VAT number against VIES.
The mistakes that come up most often
1. A missing or wrong DUZP
For a VAT-registered trader the date of the taxable supply decides which tax period the supply belongs to. It does not have to match the date of issue — but it cannot be made up to suit you.
2. The wrong VAT rate
Only two rates have applied since 2024: 21 % and 12 %. Check which one covers your goods or service. Most services — IT, consulting, marketing — fall under the standard 21 %. The reduced 12 % applies to selected goods and services such as food, books, accommodation and catering.
3. A skipped invoice number
Keeping the sequence by hand makes it easy to jump a number, and a gap invites questions during a tax inspection. Automatic numbering removes the problem.
4. Wrong customer details
A typo in the company name or the IČO can cost the customer their VAT deduction. Verify the details — ideally automatically through ARES.
5. No "not registered for VAT" note
If you are not registered and do not say so, the customer may wrongly assume there is VAT to reclaim.
Step by step
- Create the customer — enter the IČO and let the details load from ARES
- Create the invoice — pick the customer, set the date of issue and the DUZP
- Add the items — description, quantity, unit price and, if you are registered, the VAT rate
- Check — invoice number, due date, bank details
- Generate the PDF — download it or send it to the customer
- Record the payment — mark the invoice paid once the money arrives
If you invoice the same services repeatedly, item templates in Taxorio save the retyping: you preset the description, the price and the VAT rate and then pick the item from a list.
Keeping invoices
If you are a VAT payer, you keep tax documents for 10 years from the end of the tax period in which the supply took place — the period set by Section 35 of the VAT Act. A non-VAT payer follows the assessment period under Section 148 of the Tax Code, generally three years, which is extended for instance by a tax inspection or a supplementary return. In practice five years is the safer habit even for a non-VAT payer.
Electronic invoices are easier to keep than paper: no shelf space and they are searchable. Just make sure you have a backup.
Summary
A correctly issued invoice is not a formality — it is what protects you when the tax office or a customer asks questions. Follow the statutory details, keep the numbering unbroken, add a QR code so payment is easy, and verify customer details against ARES. Want to avoid the errors that catch people out most often? That article goes through them one by one.
Not registered for VAT? What you actually need from invoicing software: Invoicing software for non-VAT-registered traders 2026.
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.