If you invoice services or supply goods to customers in other EU member states, you are probably caught by the obligation to file a souhrnné hlášení — the Czech EC Sales List. The form exists so that tax administrations across the EU can check with one another that a cross-border transaction was declared on both sides. In practice it is one of the duties Czech businesses most often overlook, and failing to file carries a penalty of up to 50,000 CZK. This article explains when to file, how to complete the form, and how to avoid the usual mistakes.
What the EC Sales List is, and why it exists
The EC Sales List is a statement in which a Czech VAT payer reports intra-Community supplies made to persons registered for VAT in other member states. The legal basis is Section 102 of Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax (the VAT Act).
The system works on the exchange of information between member states through VIES (the VAT Information Exchange System). When you, as a Czech VAT payer, issue an invoice without Czech VAT to a German company under the reverse charge mechanism, the German tax office uses VIES to check whether you reported that transaction in your EC Sales List. If you did not, it can prompt enquiries on both sides.
When the obligation arises
You have to file for any period in which you carried out at least one of the following:
- a supply of goods to another member state to a person registered for VAT there (Section 13(1) and (2) of the VAT Act)
- a transfer of business assets to another member state (Section 13(6) of the VAT Act)
- a supply of goods to the buyer under the simplified procedure in triangular trade (Section 17 of the VAT Act)
- a supply of services with the place of supply in another member state under Section 9(1) of the VAT Act, where the recipient is the person liable to account for the tax — typically B2B services
Important: you file only for periods in which at least one such transaction took place. If you made no intra-Community supplies in a given month or quarter, you file nothing — unlike the VAT return, which has to be filed even when it is nil.
How often: monthly or quarterly?
The frequency depends on what you supply and on your VAT tax period.
Monthly filing
You file monthly if you:
- supply goods to another EU member state — always monthly, whatever your tax period
- transfer business assets to another member state
- supply goods within a triangular trade
Quarterly filing
You may file quarterly if both of the following are true:
- you supply only services, not goods, to other member states
- your VAT tax period is quarterly
In practice that covers most self-employed developers, designers and consultants who serve EU clients and file VAT quarterly. But send a single consignment of goods and you have to switch to monthly filing.
The deadline
The EC Sales List is due by the 25th day after the end of the period it covers:
- for January 2026: by 25 February 2026
- for Q1 2026: by 25 April 2026
Filling the form in
For each transaction the form carries the following.
1. The recipient's VAT ID (DIČ)
You state the recipient's tax identification number in the other member state, including the country code. A German company will have a DIČ in the form DE123456789, a Slovak one SK2020123456. It is essential that the number is correct and valid — always check it in VIES before you issue the invoice.
In Taxorio you can have the VAT ID checked automatically through VIES when you create a client based abroad. The system confirms that the number is active and that the company name and address match, which removes one common source of error in the report.
2. The country code
The two-letter code of the member state where the recipient is registered for VAT (DE, SK, AT, PL and so on). It forms part of the recipient's VAT ID.
3. The transaction code
A code identifying the type of transaction:
- Code 0 — a supply of goods to another member state
- Code 1 — a transfer of business assets
- Code 2 — a supply of goods within a triangular trade, as the intermediary
- Code 3 — a supply of services under Section 9(1) of the VAT Act
For a typical Czech freelancer invoicing programming or consulting services to businesses abroad, the relevant one is code 3.
4. The total value
You report the sum of everything supplied to that recipient in the period, in whole Czech crowns. If you invoiced in euros, you convert at the ČNB rate applicable on the DUZP — the date of the taxable supply. Values are rounded up to whole crowns.
A worked example: a Czech developer and a German client
Take a concrete case. A self-employed developer is registered for VAT with a quarterly tax period and invoices a German company (VAT ID DE812345678) regularly for software development.
In Q1 2026 the invoices were:
- January: 2,500 EUR at a ČNB rate of 25.10 CZK/EUR on the DUZP = 62,750 CZK
- February: 3,000 EUR at 25.05 CZK/EUR = 75,150 CZK
- March: 2,800 EUR at 25.15 CZK/EUR = 70,420 CZK
All three were issued under reverse charge — without Czech VAT, referring to Section 9(1) of the VAT Act.
The EC Sales List for Q1 2026 therefore shows:
- country code: DE
- recipient's VAT ID: 812345678, without the country prefix
- transaction code: 3, a supply of services
- value: 208,320 CZK, being 62,750 + 75,150 + 70,420
Invoicing a second EU company — an Austrian one, say — would simply add another line with the same structure.
Filing through EPO
The EC Sales List is filed electronically only, through EPO, the Financial Administration's electronic filing portal, at adisspr.mfcr.cz. The steps are:
- Sign in to EPO using a datová schránka (data box), eIdentita or your login credentials
- Choose the form "Souhrnné hlášení" in the VAT section
- Complete the header — your VAT ID, the period, and the type of filing: ordinary, corrective or supplementary
- Complete the lines — one line per recipient, with the country code, VAT ID, transaction code and value
- Check and submit — EPO runs a basic check on the format of the data
You can also submit it as an XML file. If you keep your invoice records in Taxorio, you have every issued invoice with its foreign client identified and the VAT ID already validated, which makes preparing the report much quicker: filter the invoices for EU clients over the period and the figures are there.
The mistakes made most often
Based on what the tax offices see:
1. An invalid or incorrect VAT ID
State the wrong VAT ID and VIES will not match the transaction, which can start an enquiry in the recipient's country. Always check the number before you issue the invoice — in Taxorio you enter the client's IČO or DIČ and the system validates it through ARES for Czech entities or VIES for EU ones.
2. The wrong transaction code
Mixing up code 0 (goods) and code 3 (services) is surprisingly common. A freelancer supplying services should always use code 3.
3. Converting at the wrong rate
When you invoice in euros or another currency, you must use the ČNB rate applicable on the DUZP — not the rate on the invoice date and not the rate on the payment date. It is worth recording the rate on the invoice itself.
4. Forgetting to file at all
Plenty of businesses watch the VAT return and the control report and then forget the EC Sales List. Not filing carries a penalty of up to 50,000 CZK. Set yourself a reminder: if you have intra-Community supplies, the deadline is always the 25th day after the period ends.
5. Leaving transactions out
The report covers services supplied to persons registered for VAT in other member states under Section 9(1), not only supplies of goods. Some businesses report the goods and omit the services.
Corrective and supplementary reports
If you find a mistake in a report you have already filed, there are two ways to put it right:
- A corrective report — filed while the deadline has not yet passed, so within the 25 days. It replaces the original entirely.
- A supplementary report — filed after the deadline. It contains only the corrected lines, not the whole report again.
Correct mistakes as soon as you find them. A discrepancy in VIES can lead the recipient's tax office to refuse their VAT deduction, which will not help your business relationship.
EC Sales List versus control report
The two forms are often confused, but they do different jobs:
- The control report (Sections 101c to 101k of the VAT Act) covers domestic transactions and matches invoices between supplier and customer within Czechia. It is filed only for periods in which you made or received relevant taxable supplies.
- The EC Sales List (Section 102 of the VAT Act) covers cross-border transactions within the EU and feeds the exchange of information between member states. It is filed only for periods in which such a supply took place.
The intra-Community supplies you report in the EC Sales List are not reported in the control report. They do appear in the VAT return, on the relevant lines: line 20 for supplies of goods and line 21 for supplies of services.
How Taxorio helps
Taxorio assembles the EC Sales List from your invoices and offers it as XML for EPO. The Souhrnné hlášení card sits in the Taxes & Contributions section under VAT, directly below the return and the control report, and alongside the lines it shows the filing deadline and the period it is being filed for. It helps in several ways:
- Foreign client records — every client carries a stored VAT ID validated through VIES
- An overview of issued invoices — filter the invoices for EU clients over a given period in a couple of clicks
- The right DUZP — every invoice records the date of the taxable supply, which is what the currency conversion depends on
- VAT XML exports — Taxorio generates XML for the EC Sales List (DPHSHV), the control report (DPHKH1) and the VAT return (DPHDP3), where the intra-Community supplies appear on lines 20 and 21
- The Claude assistant — through the MCP connector you can ask, in plain language, for an overview of the invoices issued to a particular foreign client over a period
That keeps the data in one place: you download the report as XML and load it into the form on the MOJE daně portal.
In short
The EC Sales List is a duty of every VAT payer who supplies services or goods to persons registered for VAT elsewhere in the EU. Filing it without trouble comes down to three things: proper records of foreign clients with validated VAT IDs, an accurate DUZP on every invoice, and the correct ČNB rate. Keep your invoices in a tool like Taxorio as you go, and the report builds itself — you only download the XML.
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.