Recent trends in the regime of transfer tax in the Czech Republic and selected EU member states

Abstract

The taxation of the transfer of immovable assets is a typical feature of tax systems of the majority of EU member states. However, each of them uses its rather large power to select its own approach and to project it into the national (intrastate) law. The massive re-codification of the Czech Private law offered an opportunity to re-evaluate and to change the setting of the famous Czech tax triad, included for over two decades in the Act No. 537/1992 Coll., on the inheritance, gift and real estate transfer tax. Taking effect as of 1st January 2014, this Act was cancelled and its agenda was split, specifically the provisions about the tax on the transfer of real estate were incorporated in the brand new statute, namely the legal measure of the Senate No. 340/2013 Coll., on the real estate acquisition tax. These dramatic changes in the Czech transfer tax scenery need to be described and critically analyzed while using an assessed domestic questionnaire search and providing comparative comments regarding other EU member states.