A company has offered you a contract "on IČO" — invoicing them as a self-employed person (OSVČ) using your business ID (IČO), instead of signing an employment contract — perhaps the same job, the same desk, just without the employment contract. The first question that comes to mind is: how much should I actually ask for so I'm not worse off? The answer isn't simply "the same amount as my gross salary." Different contributions and a different tax apply, and there's a whole package of things you get automatically as an employee that you have to pay for yourself as a self-employed person — or go without. Before you agree to anything, it's worth plugging your own numbers into the self-employed vs. employee calculator, which compares three scenarios at once: employment, self-employed with flat-rate expenses, and self-employed under the lump-sum tax. In this article we'll show how those numbers are calculated, and why the simple "just invoice the same amount as your old gross salary" advice is a trap.
What an employee on a 60,000 CZK gross salary really costs
Let's take a concrete example for 2026: a gross salary of 60,000 CZK a month. The employee has 7.1% social insurance (4,260 CZK) and 4.5% health insurance (2,700 CZK) withheld from it. The income tax advance is 15% of the gross salary, i.e. 9,000 CZK; after deducting the monthly basic personal tax credit of 2,570 CZK, 6,430 CZK remains payable. The net salary that lands in the employee's account thus comes to 46,610 CZK.
The same position costs the company considerably more, though. On top of the gross salary, the employer has to add its own contributions — 24.8% for social insurance and 9% for health insurance, 33.8% of the gross salary combined. The employer's total cost for this employee therefore comes to 80,280 CZK a month, even though the employee only takes home 46,610 CZK.
The same work invoiced as a self-employed person with flat-rate expenses
Now let's convert that same amount — 60,000 CZK a month, i.e. 720,000 CZK a year — into invoicing as a self-employed person running this as a main activity, using 60% flat-rate expenses (typical for many services and trades). The tax base after deducting the flat rate is 288,000 CZK a year. Income tax of 15% of that comes to 43,200 CZK; after deducting the annual basic personal tax credit of 30,840 CZK, you pay 12,360 CZK in tax for the year.
Social and health insurance are more complicated than you'd expect. The premium calculated from the actual assessment base would come out low at this income level, but the law sets minimum advances that a self-employed person must pay regardless of what the percentage calculation actually yields — and in this case the calculated premium falls below that floor, so the minimum applies. For 2026 that's 5,005 CZK a month for social insurance (60,060 CZK a year) and 3,306 CZK a month for health insurance (39,672 CZK a year).
Tax and contributions combined thus come to 112,092 CZK a year. The self-employed person's net income works out to 607,908 CZK a year, or roughly 50,659 CZK a month.
The same work under the lump-sum tax
If the same self-employed person meets the conditions of the lump-sum regime — not a VAT payer, and income matching the first band — they can pay one monthly lump-sum payment instead of calculating tax and two separate insurance contributions. For 2026, the first band is 9,162 CZK a month, i.e. 109,944 CZK a year. Net income then comes to roughly 610,056 CZK a year, or about 50,838 CZK a month.
Side by side comparison
| Scenario | Monthly income/salary | Tax and contributions per year | Net income per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employee (gross salary) | 60,000 CZK | contributions + tax advance withheld monthly | 46,610 CZK |
| Self-employed, 60% flat-rate expenses | 60,000 CZK invoiced | 112,092 CZK | ≈ 50,659 CZK |
| Self-employed, lump-sum tax (band 1) | 60,000 CZK invoiced | 109,944 CZK | ≈ 50,838 CZK |
At first glance this looks like a clear win for the self-employed person — roughly 4,000 CZK more a month than an employee at the same nominal amount. But this comparison is incomplete, and that's exactly why so many people get burned in practice.
What this comparison leaves out — and shouldn't
An employee on a 60,000 CZK gross salary doesn't just receive their 46,610 CZK net. They also get a whole package of things that a self-employed person either has to pay for themselves or go without:
- Paid holiday — the statutory minimum of 4 weeks, roughly 8% of the year, when the employee isn't working and still gets paid. A self-employed person who takes time off loses the invoicing for those days.
- Sick pay — the employer covers the first 14 days of an employee's illness, regardless of whether they worked. A self-employed person invoices nothing while sick.
- Paid public holidays, which an employee is automatically entitled to.
- Severance pay and a notice period — when an employment relationship ends, an employee has statutory protection that a contractor "on IČO" doesn't get.
- Company benefits — meal vouchers, a pension contribution, or other employee perks that aren't counted in the gross salary but have real value.
- Higher pension contributions — the employer pays social insurance on the employee's entire gross salary, while a self-employed person paying only the minimum advances will notice years later that it's substantially reduced their pension. More in our article on how minimum advances affect a self-employed person's future pension.
- Liability and equipment — as a self-employed person you buy and maintain your own tools, equipment, and liability insurance, which as an employee you'd often get from the company.
So how much should you actually ask for
A rule of thumb from practice: don't ask for the same amount on IČO as your current gross salary — ask for roughly 1.3 to 1.5 times what your employer has been paying in total so far, i.e. the employer's total cost per employee including contributions (this used to be called the "super-gross wage"). In our example that would mean negotiating invoicing somewhere between roughly 104,000 and 120,000 CZK a month, not 60,000 CZK. Only within that range does the number start to compensate for the missing holiday, sick pay, severance, benefits, and lower future pension. The exact multiplier depends on your field, your negotiating position, and how much each item on the list actually matters to you personally — for instance, if you often take holidays or are planning a family, sick pay and holiday time carry more weight than for someone who works without a break all year.
Before you propose a number, it's worth working out how much of the invoiced amount actually stays with a self-employed person after tax, social insurance and health insurance — ideally under both regimes, flat-rate expenses and the lump-sum tax, since the difference between them shifts as income grows. You'll also find an overview of the current rates and rules in our article on social and health insurance for the self-employed.
When it counts as švarcsystém (disguised employment)
If work "on IČO" is, in substance, still dependent work — fixed working hours, direct instructions from a superior, a single client, working with their tools and on their premises — it isn't legitimate self-employed cooperation, but so-called švarcsystém (disguised employment), which is illegal and carries fines for both the company and you. Before you agree to move to IČO, check whether the actual nature of the work matches genuine independent activity. We covered this in detail in the article Švarcsystém 2026 — signs and fines.
The lump-sum tax as a simplification, not an automatic advantage
In our example, the lump-sum tax came out slightly more favourable than flat-rate expenses, mainly thanks to simpler administration — one payment instead of a tax return and two annual statements. The condition, though, is that you're not a VAT payer and your income matches the band you've chosen (up to 1, 1.5, or 2 million CZK, depending on the band). If your actual expenses are high and exceed the flat rate, or you plan to claim deductions you'd otherwise be entitled to, it's worth considering the standard regime instead. You'll find the differences between the bands and the conditions in our article on the lump-sum tax for the self-employed for 2026.
Summary
Working "on IČO" for the same nominal amount as your current gross salary may leave you with a somewhat higher net income once you add up tax and contributions, but it doesn't compensate for the lost holiday, sick pay, severance, benefits, or lower future pension. A fair number to negotiate is 1.3 to 1.5 times the employer's total cost, not the gross salary. Before you agree to an offer, plug your own numbers into the self-employed vs. employee calculator — it compares employment, self-employed with flat-rate expenses, and self-employed under the lump-sum tax all in one place, and shows how much you'd actually keep at your specific amount.