# 🇨🇿 Czech Republic — How to Issue an Invoice in 2026
2026-08-29 — Podnikio Team
Step-by-step 2026 guide to issuing an invoice in the Czech Republic — when you are legally required to, what goes on it, invoicing without an IČO, and how to do it online.
This guide is in English, for people who issue invoices **under Czech law** — as a self-employed individual (*OSVČ*) or a limited company (*s.r.o.*) registered in the Czech Republic. If you are starting out and unsure what has to be on an invoice, when you must issue one, or how to meet every legal requirement, this walks through all of it.
## Quick answer
An invoice is a record that a transaction took place. In the Czech Republic you must issue one when a customer asks you for a proof of purchase (a business customer always will), when you are a VAT payer or identified person supplying goods or services (within 15 days), when you supply to the EU, when you take an advance payment as a VAT payer, or when a contract says so. You can issue it by hand, but in practice you use an online tool: fill in your details, the client, and the line items, then download the PDF or send a web invoice.
## Main takeaways
Both VAT payers and non-VAT payers issue invoices — a non-payer's invoice is an accounting document, a payer's is a tax document.
Sometimes issuing an invoice is a legal duty (VAT payer, EU supply, a customer who asks for a purchase document, contractual agreement); otherwise you can choose to.
A Czech invoice has a long list of mandatory fields — fill them by hand, or use a tool that keeps them for you.
No IČO means you are not an entrepreneur — you can still invoice, but only within the limits of occasional income.
Do not forget to archive every invoice you issue: 5 years for accounting documents, 10 for tax documents.
## Who this applies to
*OSVČ* and *s.r.o.* invoicing under Czech law. The article assumes an ordinary supply to a Czech customer — cross-border supplies have extra rules covered in [invoicing services to the EU](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoicing-services-to-the-eu-2026) and [invoicing customers abroad](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoicing-customers-abroad-2026).
## What is an invoice?
Put simply, an invoice is a document that records that **a trade happened**. The seller (supplier) issues it to the buyer (customer). Depending on whether you are a VAT payer, it serves as an [accounting document](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoice-requirements-2026) or a tax document.
### Why do I have to issue invoices?
From the state's point of view your invoices are either an **accounting document** (if you are not a [VAT payer](/en/blog/czech-republic/faq-2026)) or a **tax document** (if you are). They matter mainly for bookkeeping and calculating tax — and you will need to produce them in a tax audit, so keep them for at least five years.
### When must I issue an invoice?
It depends on whether you are a VAT payer. The obligation does not always come straight from a statute — often it is practical or contractual:
1. **You are not a VAT payer but need an accounting record** of the transaction — typically for income tax or your books.
2. **You are a VAT payer (or an identified person) supplying goods or a service.** Issue the invoice within **15 days** of the taxable supply or of receiving payment, whichever comes first.
3. **You supply goods or services to the EU.** Also 15 days — but here the clock runs from the **end of the calendar month** of the supply (§ 28(9) of the VAT Act), so you have until the 15th of the following month, for goods dispatched to another member state or services under the reverse-charge rule.
4. **You receive a payment in advance as a VAT payer.** You must issue a tax document for the advance received.
5. **A customer asks for a proof of purchase.** On the customer's request you must hand over a document for the goods or service showing the date, the type, and the price — § 31 of the Trade Licensing Act. A full invoice covers this; a VAT payer may instead issue a simplified tax document for supplies up to CZK 10,000. Business customers always ask, since they need it for their books.
6. **You agreed to.** If a contract or agreement says you will issue an invoice, that is binding — VAT payer or not.
## What must be on the invoice?
Czech law requires a range of items, some of which differ depending on whether you are a VAT payer: typically your IČO and name, identification of your customer, a description of the [work](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoice-requirements-2026) or goods, and so on. The full list — for non-VAT payers and VAT payers, plus the register sentence, due date, and VAT rounding — is in [what a Czech invoice must contain](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoice-requirements-2026).
### What is an IČO?
The **IČO** (*identifikační číslo osoby* — company ID) is an eight-digit number that uniquely identifies you as a business, the way a birth number identifies a citizen. Almost every invoice shows one — yours, your customer's, or both. If you do not have one yet, you get it as part of registering your trade licence (*živnostenský list*).
### Can I issue an invoice without an IČO?
It depends. No IČO means you are **not an entrepreneur**. You can still issue an invoice — for example when a business customer asks for one — but only if you meet the conditions for **occasional income** (*příležitostný příjem*): genuinely one-off, with no intention to repeat the activity. Systematic activity for profit under your own name is business, and then you need an IČO (which also goes on the invoice).
## How to create invoices online (step by step)
You can fill an invoice in by hand, but a tool does it in a few clicks and keeps the mandatory fields right.
1. **Open the free Czech invoice generator.** No sign-up, no account, nothing stored.
2. **Fill in your details, your client, and the line items.** Set your VAT status — registered, simplified regime, or not registered — and, for a cross-border B2B supply within EU, set the client's **country** to their EU member state so the correct note is added and VAT is set to zero. Add a logo and a note if you want.
3. **Check the live preview and download the PDF.**
### Non-VAT payer — what to put on it
Your business name or name, your registered seat or place of business, and your IČO. Sole traders add the sentence *"Fyzická osoba zapsaná v živnostenském rejstříku"*; companies add the fuller Commercial Register reference (court, section, insert). We also recommend adding the optional **due date**.
### VAT payer — what to add
On top of the non-payer details, § 29 of the VAT Act requires the customer's DIČ (if they are a payer), a sequential tax document number (e.g. `2026-1234`), the DUZP if it differs from the issue date, the tax base, the VAT rate (or a reference to the exemption), and the VAT amount in CZK.
## Doing this repeatedly
If you invoice more than a handful of times a month, a free **Podnikio account** removes the repetition: your issuer details and logo saved once, a reusable client list and saved payment methods, a searchable history of every invoice, recurring invoices that generate and send themselves on a schedule, and — once ready — a business bank account that matches incoming payments to invoices automatically, plus an accountant who handles the filings.
## Frequently asked questions
### How do I issue an invoice for free?
Use the [free invoice generator](/en/services/czechia/invoice-generator) — no account, and nothing you type is stored.
### How do I issue an invoice online?
Enter your details and the client's, add the line items, and download the PDF or send a web invoice link. It takes about a minute.
### How do I choose invoicing software?
Focus on three things: **ease of use** (it should save you time, and the invoices should look good), **the features you will actually use** (reminders, payment matching, accounting export, foreign currencies, income and expense tracking), and **trust** (who uses it, what other freelancers and accountants say, how good the support is).
### How is an advance or proforma invoice issued?
An advance (*zálohová*) or proforma invoice is issued to collect payment up front and must be labelled as such. Neither is a tax document. See [proforma vs advance invoice](/en/blog/czech-republic/proforma-vs-advance-invoice-2026).
### How is an invoice to another country issued?
See [invoicing services to the EU](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoicing-services-to-the-eu-2026) and [invoicing customers abroad](/en/blog/czech-republic/invoicing-customers-abroad-2026).
### How far back can an invoice be issued?
A VAT payer should issue within 15 days of the taxable supply or of receiving payment, whichever is earlier. A non-VAT payer has no fixed statutory deadline, but the supply date must be correct and the invoice must fall in the right period for income tax.
## Contact us
If you have a specific question about issuing invoices in the Czech Republic, feel free to reach out. We offer a free initial consultation.
## Related posts
- [🇨🇿 Czech Republic — What a Czech Invoice Must Contain in 2026](https://www.podnik.io/en/blog/czech-republic/invoice-requirements-2026)
- [🇨🇿 Czech Republic — Proforma vs Advance Invoice in 2026](https://www.podnik.io/en/blog/czech-republic/proforma-vs-advance-invoice-2026)
- [🇨🇿 Czech Republic — Invoicing Services to the EU in 2026](https://www.podnik.io/en/blog/czech-republic/invoicing-services-to-the-eu-2026)