An often-hear question is: so...what is 'better'? Salary? a Trade License? and SRO?
Of course 'better' means usually: how do I get to keep most of my money.
With Dividends, you can not escape paying 21% Corporate Income Tax, and then 15-23% Withholding Tax before the money is 'yours' and out of the company. Oh, and if the SRO is at a loss - you can't pay out Dividends.
As an employee, your boss pays 34% on top of your Gross Salary, and the difference between the Gross (in your contract) and Net (in your hand) is 11-27% (Ok, this is between bare-bone and high roller salaries, but it is safe to say for most salaries: about 22%).
If you are your own boss: multipy the Net salary by 1.8 to get to the total costs. Sub-optimal.
On a Dohoda o provedene prace (it is not Employment, it is more for one-off or low-hour jobs), only 15% Income Tax is withheld.
You can earn only 11,999 CZK / month per job (2026) - but... you can have multiple dohodas at multiple jobs.
Calculate it yourself
Salary or trade license: what is left for you?
Enter what a company spends per month, or a gross salary. The calculator shows the net amount as an employee, on a DPP, on a trade license with 60/40 and with the flat-tax method, for 2026.
Obviously all of the above have one or more drawbacks.
But the Trade License, for Revenue between 600K and 2M offers Tax + Social + Health combined is about 14% - and about 11% for people who are not in Public Health Care.
Sure, over 2M Revenue the percentage rises to 30% at 5M Revenue, but compared to the other options - that's still the best deal.
Here is what is left of 1,000,000 CZK a year in 2026:
What you keep of 1,000,000 CZK · 2026
Trade license, flat-tax method
890,056 CZK · 89%
9,162 CZK a month, all in (band 1, up to 1.5M revenue). Only with public health insurance.
Trade license, 60/40 method
866,928 CZK · 87%
Tax 29,160 + social 64,240 + health 39,672 CZK. Without public health insurance: 906,600.
Dohoda (DPP)
850,000 CZK · 85%
15% tax, no insurance. Only up to 11,999 CZK a month per DPP, so 1M needs several.
s.r.o., all as dividends
702,340 CZK · 70%
21% corporate tax, then 15% on the dividends in your tax return (basic tax credit used). No salary.
Employee
579,384 CZK · 58%
The company pays 1,000,000: gross salary 747,372, then employee tax, social and health insurance.
Not included: other tax credits and deductions, real expenses, the 23% rate and running costs of an s.r.o. Your own numbers: salary calculator or costs by revenue.
