Glossary

The A1 Form – certifying that the form holder is subject to the Czech social security legislation is issued by the competent District Social Security Administration office (OSSZ) on the basis of an application filed by the person or his or her employer ("Application for Certificate of Applicable Social Security Legislation" available at the CSSZ website). The OSSZ will examine the information provided in the application and the attached documents to determine whether the conditions for the issuance of the A1 Form have been met. Migrating persons are obliged to provide the respective institution with any information and documents necessary for the assessment of their situation or the situation of their families, for identification and observation of their rights, and for determination of applicable legislation and their duties under such legislation.

Aggregated natural hazard – refers to insurance against all natural hazards. Apart from FLEXA risks (fire, explosion, a direct strike of lightning, a fall or crash of an airplane, or its parts or load) it entails storm, hailstorm, water pipe damage, water leaking from sprinkler systems, flood/flooding, earthquake, volcano eruption, landslide, land slump, avalanche and snow loads, vehicle impact, smoke, and shock wave.

All Risks – a type insurance that does not define what is covered by the insurance policy but rather specifies what is not covered, i.e. all risks that are not expressly excluded are insured.

The Office for the Protection of Competition (UOHS, colloquially the "Antitrust Authority") – based in Brno, is the central body of the state administration dealing with issues related to economic competition and public procurement. It came into existence as the Czech Office for Competition on 1 July 1991. In 1992-1996, it acted as the Ministry for Competition. The Office’s scope of competence is defined by Act No. 273/1996 Sb., on the Scope of Competence of the Office for the Protection of Competition.

The Office's task is to create conditions for support and protection of competition, and to supervise public procurement and state aid. In 2002-2004, the Office was entitled to decide about the compatibility of provided state aid with European Community law. On 1 May 2004, this competence fully passed on to the European Commission. The Office is an advisory, monitoring and consulting body.

Apostille – a clause attached to official instruments and documents to certify the authenticity of the signature and stamp on a document for the purpose of its use abroad.

ATA Carnet (abbreviation of l'Admission Temporaire, ATA Carnet) – is a set of customs passes, hence the French word carnet – notebook). ATA Carnet is an international customs document that simplifies customs formalities in the event of a temporary use of goods beyond the border, i.e. in the event of a temporary export and re-import (return) of the goods to the country of origin. In the Czech Republic, ATA Carnets are issued by the Czech Chamber of Commerce based in Prague. See Transport outside the European Union.

Authentication and legalisation (or higher authentication of documents) – is an act of an administrative body authenticating a public instrument, or an instrument that has already been officially authenticated, for the purpose of its use abroad. Authentication and legalisation of Czech documents is performed by the central body of state administration superior to the body that had issued the respective document. Subsequently, the signature and the official stamp of such superior state administration body is authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and this authentication is then authenticated by the embassy or consulate of the country where the document is to be used.

Author – an individual who has created a work. An author of a collection of works is the individual who has selected or arranged individual works in a creative way, without affecting the rights of authors of the individual works included in the collection. Authorship cannot be attributed to any other person than the author.

It is presumed by law that an author is the individual whose name is indicated in a usual manner on the work or is indicated with the work in the register administered by the relevant copyright collective society, unless proven otherwise. This does not apply to cases where such information is in conflict with other information so indicated. This presumption also applies when the name is a pseudonym, provided that the pseudonym used by the author does not raise any doubts about the author's identity.

Authorship in no way depends on the legal capacity of the individual. A child or a person whose legal capacity has been limited by a court can also become an author. This issue is nevertheless important with regard to the use of copyright.

Business-to-business – commercial transactions between companies. These do not include services provided to end customers.

Business-to-customer – commercial transactions between companies and end customers.

Bank Identifier Code – provides unique identification of a bank in international payments (similarly as a bank code in domestic payments). It consists of 8 or 11 characters according to international standard ISO 9362.

The Blue Card – is issued for a long-term stay for the purpose of employment, but unlike the Employee Card, high professional qualification is required for the issuance of the Blue Card. High qualification means that the employee has completed duly either college or university education or higher specialised education lasting for at least three years. In addition, the agreed gross monthly or annual wage must equal at least 1.5 times the average annual wage.

Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, abbreviated as Brussels I bis, is a legal act of the European Union which replaced the former Council regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I Regulation).

Brussels I bis has simplified significantly the resolution of civil and commercial disputes with international elements, since it abolished, without replacement, proceedings for a declaration of enforceability. Final decisions are therefore enforceable on the basis of the decision itself and a certificate of enforceability. In addition, Brussels I bis has removed some other shortcomings of the previous Brussels I Regulation, particularly in the area of effectiveness of choice-of-court agreements (prorogation) and lis pendens obstacles.

A copyright collective society is authorised to license copyrighted works, defined either individually or collectively. This applies to all copyrighted works for which the copyright collective society performs collective rights management. If the copyright collective society licenses copyrighted works defined collectively (in a collective licensing agreement) and the user's information on the use of individual copyrighted works is necessary for the distribution of the fees collected, the copyright collective society is entitled to request such information from the user. The collective licensing agreement has to be made in writing. The copyright collective society must not impose restrictions on the users of the copyrighted works beyond the scope of protection provided by law.

A collective society – is an institution that is authorised by a large number of authors to collect royalties based on their copyrights or manage related rights to their works. Collective rights management in the Czech Republic is based on Title IV of the Copyright Act.

Copyright collective societies are usually private entities whom state authorities in many countries have granted a monopoly on the management of the collective rights. By their nature, collective societies are somewhere between solidarity trade union groupings of authors protecting their interests against economically stronger users of their works and government agencies responsible for compliance with the duty to report copies, public productions and radio broadcasting of copyrighted works.

In the Czech Republic, there are the following collective societies:

• DILIA – a theatre, literary and audio-visual agency
• OSA – the Copyright Protection Association for Music Rights
• INTERGRAM – an independent association of performing artists and producers of phonograms and audio-visual fixations
• OOAS – Authors Copyright Protection Association – Association of Authors of Works of Fine Art, Architecture and Visual Components of Audio-visual Works
• GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship, authors’ copyright protection association (collective management of rights to royalties upon the resale of an original work of fine art)
• OAZA – The Protective Association of Sound Engineers - Authors

Competence, or jurisdiction – (derived from the Latin words ius = law, right and dictio = statement) is the exercise of judicial or other official authority in legal matters or the identification of the persons falling within its scope and territory. The terms judicial or official competence and jurisdiction in Czech law relate to determining who will deal with and decide a specific case.

In international law, jurisdiction mostly means an individual country (it ensues from its sovereignty). As regards federations, individual federal states can be jurisdictions. There are also countries like United Kingdom, whose four lands form three different jurisdictions (England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). The international law distinguishes between two types of jurisdiction: territorial (a citizen is subject to the authority of the country in which he or she stays) and personal (a citizen is subject to the jurisdiction of his or her home country even though he or she is not staying in its territory).

We can also talk about jurisdiction of international organisations (e.g. the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court) and supranational organisations (e.g. the jurisdiction of the European Union).

Contributions to the national employment policy – the contributions are used by the state to cover unemployment benefits paid to the unemployed and to people undergoing retraining (including the payment of retraining courses).

Coordination – means the national legislation does not change, so the differences between national systems stay. Coordination means that only the national regulations that are disadvantageous for migrating citizens will be replaced. For these cases, the EU lays down separate coordination rules.

Countries with a bilateral agreement – are member states of the EU, EEA, and Switzerland as well as all countries with which the Czech Republic has signed an international bilateral agreement on recognition of social security contributions, see International Agreements.
Foreigners who have paid social security contributions in countries without reciprocal agreements must take part in the social security scheme for a required period in the Czech Republic since the social security period in the countries without reciprocal agreements is not taken into account.

Countries without a bilateral agreement – a country with which the Czech Republic has not signed an international social security agreement, and which is not a member of the EU or EEA, or Switzerland.

The Customs Administration of the Czech Republic – like customs administration authorities of other countries, it fulfils two basic tasks: the protection and regulation of the domestic market by collecting of customs duties on imported goods, and the supervision over these goods to ensure that they do not endanger the lives or health of people, animals or plants.

Double Taxation Agreement – an agreement preventing one income from being taxed by two countries at the same time.

Duration of the cover – the period specified in the insurance policy during which the insured person is covered by insurance.

Employee – is one of the two parties in an employment relationship (the other one being the employer). An employee is obliged to perform specific dependent work for the employer, for which he or she is entitled to a wage or salary. The older term "worker" is used as well, but from the legal point of view it is not identical with the term "employee".

A person who attains 15 years of age on the day of entering into an employment contract has the legal capacity to be an employee. However, such person must have completed compulsory school attendance. Exceptions may be granted for reasonable, socially beneficial work which by its nature or scope does not endanger the health and development of such person nor prevent the person from preparing for future occupation. An employee under the age of 18 is referred to as underage employee. Such employee acquires full legal capacity (including material liability) upon attaining the age of 18 years.

Employee Card – is a type of a long-term residence permit which has replaced separate visas for stays exceeding 90 days for the purpose of employment, long-term residence permits for employment purposes, and the Green Card. It entitles its holder both to stay and to be employed in the Czech Republic.

Enforcement, or execution – (derived from the Latin word "exsecutio" meaning performance, carrying out) is a process of recovering an enforcement title. An enforcement title is, for instance, an enforceable court judgment, an enforceable arbitration award, a notarial deed containing a consent to enforceability, an enforceable decision by a state administration or self-government body, and other enforceable decisions and approved settlements and instruments whose enforceability is permitted by law.

In most cases, enforcement means collection of money from an obligor (debtor) for an obligee (creditor), or forcing the obligor to fulfil any other obligations. In other words, the enforcement proceedings is to make the obligor fulfil the obligation related to the right that has been ascertained in trial proceedings, where the obligor failed to do so voluntarily. However, the trial proceedings and the enforcement proceedings are not directly connected; enforcement proceedings is a separate type of civil proceedings with specific procedural principles and concepts which gives rise to new legal relations under substantive law are created. Enforcement proceedings must always be preceded by trial proceedings resulting in an enforceable enforcement title. A petition for the commencement of enforcement proceedings can be filed only if the obligee's claim against the obligor, found and recognised in the trial proceedings, is not fulfilled voluntarily. The enforcement proceedings cannot be commenced without a petition filed by the obligee.

In the Czech Republic, a distinction is made between the enforcement of judgments conducted by courts themselves and executions performed by private enforcement agents. A difference lays, for instance, in that the enforcement of a judgment, conducted under the Civil Procedure Code, is performed by a judicial officer in charge of enforcement, who is an employee paid by the court, and the enforcement proceedings are subject to fees specified in the Act on Court Fees, whereas execution, conducted under the Execution Code, is performed by an enforcement agent – a private individual in charge of executions based on a state license, and the costs of execution are usually paid by the obligor. In addition, tax authorities and other administrative bodies may conduct their own execution proceedings.

The term "enforcement" is relatively new, chosen by legislators when passing the Civil Procedure Code in 1963, as it was then believed to be more appropriate than the formerly common term "execution". The term "execution" has, however, survived in people's minds, and the Czech legislation has been using it again since the 1990s (tax execution, administrative execution, execution conducted by licensed enforcement agents). After its planned recodification, the Civil Procedure Code can be expected to return fully to the traditional term "execution".

EORI number – is a personal number assigned by the customs administration. It is used as an identifier in communication with customs authorities. See Transport outside the European Union.

The EU Customs Union – is a single trading area where all goods made in the EU or imported from other countries circulate freely. For example, a mobile phone produced in Finland can be sent to Hungary without a customs duty having to be paid for it. It does not even have to pass through a customs check. Customs duties on goods imported from non-EU countries, such as TV sets from South Korea, are paid upon the entry of the goods into the territory of the EU. Afterwards, no other payment is required, and no further checks are conducted.

EU Visa Code – regulation (EC) No 810/2009 is legally binding for all countries that issue visas for short-term stays in the Schengen Area or for transit via the Schengen Area for up to 90 days. It establishes and unifies legal requirements for the issuance of visas and visa procedure.

EU, EEA, and Switzerland – Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), and Switzerland.

The European Account Preservation Order – is aimed at preventing a creditor's claim from being endangered by a transfer or withdrawal of funds deposited on a bank account held in an EU Member State in the name of the debtor or a third party on behalf of the debtor. If a European Account Preservation Order is issued, the bank freezes the amount specified in the order and makes a transfer or withdrawal of funds from the account impossible.

Filing an application for a European Account Preservation Order comes into consideration when a creditor has a monetary claim in civil and commercial matters in cross-border cases, i.e. when the bank account is held in a Member State other than that in which the creditor is based or in which the petition for the European Account Preservation Order was filed. The application is filed with a court and can submitted even before filing a petition to commence proceedings on the merit (legal action).

In order for a creditor's application for a European Account Preservation Order to be successful, the creditor has to prove that there is an urgent need for the order to be issued wit regard to a real risk that without such measure the subsequent recovery of the creditor's claim against the debtor would be frustrated or hindered substantially.

The European Economic Area (EEA) – refers to the extension of the single European market agreed upon by the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway with the aim of creating a common economic area in Europe. The agreement contains provisions regarding free movement of people, goods, and capital as well as collaboration in matters of automobile transport, agriculture, fisheries, trade, and energy. The Agreement on the European Economic Area came into effect on 1 January 1994. Switzerland is not an EEA member, as decided by Swiss citizens in a referendum held in 1992.

The European Payment Order – introduced by an EU regulation, is a court decision made in simplified proceedings and unified throughout most of Europe. It may only be issued in cross-border cases relating to private matters (except property rights arising out of matrimony, testaments and succession, insolvency proceedings, social security, and claims arising out of non-contractual obligations, unless they are laid down by an agreement between parties or unless a debt has been acknowledged or unless they concern pecuniary claims arising out of co-ownership).

It is used in all EU Member States, except Denmark, and allows avoiding having to undergo unfamiliar legal procedures in foreign countries, since this type of payment order is enforceable directly in all Member States, except Denmark, without the necessity of conducting further proceedings or presenting an enforcement clause.

An application for the European Payment Order is filed on a standardised form, and the court only assesses whether it contains all required essentials and whether it appears justified. If not, the application is rejected. In the opposite case, the court issues the payment order on a standardised form. In the European Payment Order, the defendant is advised that he or she has the option of either paying the amount specified in the order to the claimant or challenging the order within 30 days of its delivery by filing a protest. It has to be delivered to all parties to the proceedings. If a protest is filed in time, the court continues to conduct traditional civil proceedings. In the opposite case, it declares the issued payment order enforceable. After that, a European Payment Order can be reviewed in exceptional cases only.

This procedure was introduced with the aim to streamline and accelerate cross-border disputes involving small value claims and to reduce their costs. The European Small Claims Procedure serves to the parties to a dispute as an alternative option to proceedings regulated by the legislation of individual Member States (except Denmark).

The procedure applies to civil and commercial claims whose value without interest and any additional fees does not exceed EUR 2 000 at the moment when the claim form is delivered to the competent court.

The procedure does not apply to fiscal, customs and administrative matters, state liability for acts and omissions in exercising state authority (acta iure imperii), to matters relating to personal status and legal capacity of individuals, to property rights arising out of matrimony, the maintenance duty, testaments and succession, insolvency, composition with creditors and similar proceedings, social security, arbitration proceedings, labour law, and lease of real estate, with the exception of actions relating to pecuniary claims or to infringement of privacy protection and personal rights, including defamation.

European Union – a political and economic union comprising, since its last enlargement on 1 July 2013, 28 European countries with 510.3 million inhabitants (2016; approximately 7.3 percent of the world population). The European Union was established in 1993 on the basis of the Treaty on European Union, better known as the Maastricht Treaty, to replace and succeed the European Community. European integration has been under way since the end of World War II. In 2017, however, the United Kingdom announced its withdrawal from the European Union founding treaties with a two-year notice period.

Excess – an agreed part of the insurance claim which is to be paid by the insured person. It is determined as a fixed amount, a percentage, or a combination of both. If an insurance policy provides for an excess, the insurer will reduce each insurance benefit by the agreed amount of the excess.

An artist has the right to exploit his or her work or performance and to grant a license to another person to exercise this right. Such another person may exploit the work or performance without obtaining such license only in cases specified by law. By granting such license, the artist's exploitation right does not cease to exist, but an obligation arises for the artist to tolerate an interference with this right by another person to the extent arising from the licensing agreement. A work or performance is typically exploited in public (the public nature is a constituent element of the term "exploitation").

By a licensing agreement an artist transfers this right to a certain extent to a licensee.  Such transfer is of "constitutive" character, which means that the artist does not lose the right by its transfer but establishes a license for another person.

The author has the right to require that the owner of the thing through which the work is expressed make such thing accessible to him or her if necessary for the exercise of copyrights. This right cannot be exercised at variance with the legitimate interests of the owner, and the owner is not obliged to release such a thing to the author but is obliged, at the request and expense of the author, to take a photo or make another copy of the work and give it to the author.

The right to exploit a work or performance encompasses the right to reproduce or distribute the original or its copy, as well as the right to rent, lend, display and make it accessible it to the public, especially the right to live performance or reproduction of a recording and transmission of a performance, the right of broadcasting a work or performance on radio or television, the right to transmit a radio or television broadcasting, the right to operate a radio or television broadcasting, and the right to make the work or performance accessible through the Internet or mobile networks.

First loss insurance – if the insured value cannot be determined (particularly the value of another person's items that the insured person has taken over on the basis of a contract for work and performance, passbooks, chequebooks and similar documents, papers, plans, etc.), the insured person determines the sum insured at his or her own discretion and according to his or her insurance needs. Thus, determined sum insured constitutes the maximum limit of insurance benefits paid by the insurance company for all claims made in one insurance year or during the period for which the insurance policy was taken out.

FLEXA – basic insurance against natural hazards, such as fire, explosion, a direct strike of lightning, a fall or crash of an airplane, or its parts or load.

Foreigner – any individual who is not a citizen of the Czech Republic.

Free movement of goods – the first of the four basic freedoms of the internal market, is secured by the removal of customs duties and quantitative restrictions and the prohibition of measures having an equivalent effect as customs duties or quantitative restrictions. In order to continue creating the internal market, these elements have been extended to include the mutual recognition principle, the removal of physical and technical barriers and the support of normalisation. The adoption of a new legal framework in 2008 has brought a significant strengthening of the rules related to product marketing, free movement of goods, the system of supervision over the EU market, and CE marking. The mutual recognition principle, applied to a whole range of products which are not subject to the EU's harmonisation legislation, has been strengthened as well.

Goods – are tangible objects of business transactions that can be valued in money.

Harmonisation – is a term used in the European legislation. Harmonisation refers to the mutual approximation of legal and administrative regulations of the European Union Member States. Unlike the unification of legal regulations, harmonisation is not intended to replace national law by Community law. Rather, it keeps national laws in place while setting the guidelines for their implementation. A typical means of achieving this goal is a directive.

IBAN (International Bank Account Number) – a standardised account number format defined by international standard ISO 13616.

Income Tax – a type of direct tax. In the Czech Republic, it is regulated by Act No. 586/1992 Sb., on Income Tax, as amended. It deals with individual income tax and corporate income tax separately.

Individual, also natural person – an individual person, a human being.

Insurance coverage – is the agreed scope of risks covered in the insurance policy; the terms and conditions attached to the policy describe in detail the rules and conditions under which the insurance company is obliged to pay the insurance benefit and under which it is not obliged to do so.

Insurance period – the period for which an insurance policy is taken out. If an insured event occurs during the insurance period, the insurer becomes obliged to pay out the insurance benefit.

Insurance policy – a legal document made in writing in accordance with the applicable legislation. It expresses the specific terms and conditions under which the insurance was taken out. The agreed terms and conditions are binding for both the insurer and the policyholder.

Insured event – a loss event connected with the insurer's obligation to pay an insurance benefit. In the case of liability insurance, an insured event occurs when the insured person becomes liable for compensation of the damage incurred while the insurer becomes obliged to cover such damage.

Insured person – is a person (an individual or a legal entity) whose assets or liability for damage are covered by insurance.

Insured value – the value of the insured item which is decisive for the determination of the sum insured.

Insurer, or insurance company – a legal entity that offers insurance on the basis of a license granted by the Ministry of Finance. It is a company that undertakes to pay out an insurance benefit of the agreed extent if a fortuitous event specified in the insurance policy

International agreements – international social security agreements are a traditional and commonly used means of coordination of the area of social security. Their primary purpose is to secure the rights of persons migrating between two countries-parties to the agreement. For more information see this link.

Legal entity – in accordance with the Czech Civil Code, a legal entity is an organised body whose legal personality is stipulated or recognised by a statute. A legal entity may have rights and duties consistent with its legal nature regardless of its scope of business.

Liability insurance – relates not only to damage (harm) caused by the activity of a legal entity or an individual but also to damage caused by the operation of the assets belonging to a legal entity or an individual.

Through a licensing agreement, an artist grants someone else (a licensee) the right to exploit the artist's work or performance. This right allows the licensee to record or reproduce the work or performance, and to distribute, rent, lend or exhibit the original or its copies or to make them accessible in intangible form via the media. Restrictions of copyright and exceptions from it are governed by Chapter 4 of Book I of the Copyright Act.

There are two basic types of licenses: exclusive and non-exclusive ones. A non-exclusive license allows the artist to continue exercising all rights related to his or her work or performance as well as to grant a license to third parties. Such license does not have to be in writing. A written form, on the other hand, is required for an exclusive license, which does not allow the artist to grant the same license to a third party, and usually the artist himself or herself is obliged to refrain from exercising the right to use the work or performance in the manner for which he or she had granted the license. The licensee may grant the license to a third party if so agreed in the licensing agreement, which means with the consent the licensor. Such license is then called a sub-license.

The licensing agreement is in principle a contract for monetary consideration, which means that the licensor is entitled to remuneration for the granting of the license. In exceptional cases, in order to maintain the principle of freedom of contract, a gratuitous agreement is allowed. In order for a licensing agreement to be valid under Czech law, it must cover four basic areas: the parties to the agreement, the subject of the license, the scope and manner of the exploitation of the work, and the remuneration for the license.

It means an employment conducted in the Czech Republic (and under certain conditions abroad as well) for which no monthly income has been agreed upon or the agreed income is below CZK 2 500. With the effect as from 1 January 2014, the agreed or actual duration of such employment does not play a role (the concept of short-term employment ceased to exist).

An employee performing marginal employment must register for sickness and pension insurance only in those months in which his or her actual wage exceeds the fixed amount. The registration is made retroactively in the month following the month in which he/she earned the income.

The minimum wage – is the lowest legally admissible wage that employers are obliged to pay to their employees. The purpose of setting the minimum wage is to protect both the employee and the employer. The minimum wage fulfils two basic roles: a) social protection – it should ensure that the employee's incomes do not drop below the socially acceptable level and to ensure equal conditions for wage competition in order to avoid excessive undercutting on the labour market, b) the economic criterion – the guarantee of the minimum wage should motivate people to seek jobs instead of receiving social benefits and serve as a protection against unfair competition resulting from the payment of too low wages. For the mobility of artists this means that an artist visiting a certain EU Member State cannot be legally paid less than the minimum wage set by the internal legislation of the Member State in question.

Natural hazard – is an event caused by the following: fire, explosion, lightning, a crash or fall of an airplane, its part or its load, flood or flooding, storm, hail, landslide, fall of glass or soil, avalanche, the fall of trees, masts and other objects, the weight of snow or icing, earthquake, and water pipe damage.

OSSZ – the District Social Security Administration is a local branch of the Czech Social Security Administration that has territorial competence over the place of residence of a particular Social security payer.

Pension insurance – under the Czech Pension Insurance Act, the persons participating in pension insurance are secured in life situations such as old age, disability, and the death of the breadwinner. Under such circumstances, the insurance payers are entitled to claim pension benefits. The following pensions are provided from the basic pension insurance:

• - Retirement pensions,
• - Disability benefits,
• - Widow's and widower's benefits, and
• - Orphan's benefits.

For more information see here.

A performing artist – is an individual who has performed an artistic work, i.e. an actor, singer, musician, dancer, conductor, choirmaster, director, or another person who plays, sings, recites poems, shows or otherwise performs a work of art, including shows of traditional folk culture. Acrobats are also considered performing artists even though they do not perform artistic works. It should be noted that we include (theatre or radio) directors among performing artists as well, even though experts differ in opinions on their inclusion.

Person Identified for VAT purposes – a person who is not a VAT payer but is:

• - A taxable person (a legal entity or an individual) or a non-taxable legal entity that purchases goods worth more than CZK 326 000 a year from another EU Member State – see Section 6 (g) of the VAT Act
• - A taxable person that receives a service, a delivery of goods that needs to be installed or assembled, a supply of goods via networks or grids (energy) from a person in another EU Member State or a third country (outside the EU) regardless of the amount – see Section 6 (h) of the VAT Act – e.g. Facebook services, foreign software, etc.
• - A taxable person that provides a service at a place of performance in another EU Member State – see Section 6 (i) of the VAT Act

Personal insurance – encompasses a wide range of types of insurance, such as life insurance, accident insurance, travel insurance, etc.

Policy terms and conditions – a document containing important contractual terms and conditions related to insurance. In particular, it defines which insured events are covered by the insurance.

Policyholder – a person (an individual or a legal entity) that has entered into an insurance contract (policy) with the insurer. Such person is obliged to pay the insurance premiums and has the rights set out in the insurance policy. The policyholder is usually the same person as the insured person.

Premiums – the agreed price for the provided insurance. This price includes the calculated loss, overhead expenses, and the insurer's profit.

Property insurance – a summary term for several segments of non-life insurance. It means insurance against loss and damage and can cover both one's own items as well as another person's items or sets of items.

A purpose of stay – is the reason why a foreigner is residing in the Czech Republic (e.g. study, employment).

in employer-employee relations

Employees receive remuneration for their work in the form of wages or salaries.

A wage – is remuneration for work performed in employment, paid on the pay-day (usually on a monthly basis) in arrears. It may consist of the following components: the basic wage, wage compensations, and performance components. It is a monetary remuneration or a remuneration of a monetary value (in-kind wage) paid by an employer to an employee. Unlike salaries, wages are paid in the private sector, while salaries are paid only to employees of entities defined by law, for example state employees.

A salary – is a monetary remuneration paid to an employee for his or her work done for an employer that is a public body (the public sector, e.g. the Government, a municipal authority, a regional authority, a state fund, a budget-funded organisation – where salaries are paid from the budget of its founder – a school, etc.).However, monetary remuneration paid to citizens of foreign countries who perform work outside the Czech Republic, though working for one of the above-mentioned employers, does not constitute a salary. Employees working for any other employer (i.e. in the private sector) do not earn salaries but rather wages.

within Copyright Collective Management

By signing an agreement on collective copyright management an artist authorises a copyright collective society to manage (more precisely: to represent the artist in the exercise of) his or her copyright. The copyright collective society then asserts the artist's copyright against the users of the artist’s works or performances in stead of the artist.

Residence Permit – includes chiefly short-term visas, long-term visas, long-term residence permits, and permanent residence.

To become eligible for the retirement pension people must be insured (i.e. people must pay the social security contributions) for the required period and attain the required age (i.e. the retirement age, or an age derived from the retirement age, or 65 years of age). On 1 January 2010, Act No. 155/1995 Sb., on Pension Insurance, was amended. This amendment set a new retirement age and a new required period of insurance for the entitlement to retirement pension. Changes were also made in the method of calculation of the amount of the retirement pension.

For further information in English see here.

of an Original Work of Art

Right to Resale for the Benefit of the Author of an Original Work of Art (Droite de suite) – this specific economic right in copyright is relevant in fine arts. Based on this right, fine artists are entitled to a percentage of the selling price for each (re)sale of their work of art where an auctioneer, a gallery or a professional dealer takes part in the sale and where the purchase price of the work of art is higher than or equal to EUR 1 500 at the resale. There are, however, exceptional cases when they are not entitled to such remuneration.

The Schengen Area – currently comprises the territory of the EU Member States, except Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican are not officially part of Schengen, but the Schengen agreements are applied on their borders.

Self-employed person – under Czech Act No. 155/1995 Sb., on Pension Insurance, as amended, a self-employed person is an individual who:

• - Carries out an independent gainful activity, or
• - Collaborates in carrying out an independent gainful activity if the income from such activity and the expenses incurred on achieving, securing and keeping this income can be distributed to this person pursuant to Act No. 586/1992 Sb., on Income Taxes, as amended,
• - Has completed the compulsory school attendance and has attained at least 15 years of age.

The Czech Labour Code does not define serious operational reasons or reasons consisting in a special nature of work. The detailed definition of such reasons has to be provided in a written agreement concluded between the employer and the trade unions. If there is no trade union at the employer’s company, the employer may replace such agreement by an internal regulation.

With regard to the specificity of the operation of theatre, which "deviates" from the traditional production process, employment at a brick-and-mortar theatre may also be regarded as work of "special nature".

Serious reasons may also include a change in the scope of business or production programme, organisational or streamlining changes, technological measures, seasonal or campaign work, an immediate need to increase workforce, a peak-load demand for workers when a temporary vacancy needs to be filled or an employee absent for a limited time needs to be replaced, etc.

Serious operational reasons (or reasons consisting in a special nature of work) are most often faced by employers using seasonal work in agriculture, construction, tourism and culture.

Sickness insurance – the purpose of sickness benefits is to provide financial support to economically active citizens when they lose income temporarily due to an illness or maternity leave. For employees, participation in sickness insurance is mandatory by law. Only persons working in the Czech Republic for employers based in the Czech Republic may participate in sickness insurance. Self-employed persons can make contributions to the sickness insurance voluntarily. In sickness insurance, no distinction is made between an employee who is a citizen of the Czech Republic and an employee who is a citizen of another country.

For further information in English see here.

Sum insured – the amount determined in the insurance policy as the maximum limit of the insurance benefit paid by the insurance company. The sum insured should correspond to the insured value of each item in the insurance year, or in the period for which the insurance policy was taken out, with the exception of first loss insurance and liability insurance.

Tax Domicile (or Tax Residence) – is a tool that determines the country in which a particular taxpayer is obliged to pay taxes – the taxpayer is a tax resident of such country.

Taxpayer – an individual or a legal entity whose incomes, assets or activities are subject to taxation.

Taxpayer – a person who is required by law to calculate, collect or deduct a tax and to pay it to the tax authority within a certain period.

Temporary Admission – is a customs regime allowing certain goods (including means of transport) to be brought into the customs territory with a conditional exemption from the payment of import duties and taxes and without any import bans and restrictions of economic nature; such goods (including means of transport) must be imported for a specific purpose with the intention of their re-export within a specified period and in an unchanged condition, with the exception of the usual depreciation resulting from their use.

Temporary employment – was formerly a term for an employment that did not last and should not last longer than 14 calendar days (in 2008 the length was set at only eight calendar days). The temporary employment legislation had an impact on the conditions of entitlement to sickness insurance. However, with effect from 1 January 2014 this legislation was abolished, and only the institute of marginal employment has remained in force.

Transit – means transport of goods from one customs authority to another.

Threshold amount – is the amount of profits (i.e. incomes received in one calendar year reduced by i.e. deductible costs/expenses for the calendar year in question) that a self-employed person may make in a particular calendar year without having to pay advances on social security contributions calculated from his or her business activities in the following calendar year. However, if the threshold amount is exceeded, the self-employed person is obliged to pay social security advances calculated from the earned profits, at least in the amount of so-called minimum statutory advances. The threshold amount is usually set up every year (but it may not always be the case). For 2019, the threshold amount equals CZK 78 476.

Underinsurance – the sum insured should correspond to the value of the insured item throughout the insurance year. If the sum insured is lower, underinsurance occurs, as a result of which the insurer will pay out a lower insurance benefit when a claim is made. In such case, the insurance benefit is in the same proportion to the damage as the sum insured to the insured value. Underinsurance is not taken into account in relation to damage liability insurance and first loss insurance.

Value Added Tax – a type of indirect tax. Everyone pays it upon purchase of most of goods and services, which is why it is also called a universal tax. It is, however, collected from VAT payers. The principle is that a supplier registered as a VAT payer has to pay a portion of the value of a sale if such sale is subject to the tax. In the Czech Republic, the payment of this tax is required under Act No. 235/2004 Sb., on Value Added Tax, as amended. The standard VAT rate in the Czech Republic is 21 %, while the reduced rate is 15 % and the second reduced rate 10 %. The VAT Act determines which rate applies to which goods/services. VAT rates differ throughout Europe as well as worldwide.

Visa – is a permit that allows a foreigner to enter and stay in the Czech Republic, or actually the Schengen Area, under the conditions indicated in it. Visa is one of the possible legal titles for a stay. Pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 (Visa Code), a visa may be issued as a single Schengen visa – for a stay in the Schengen area for up to three months – or as an airport transit visa. Longer stays require long-term visas.

Voluntary participation in pension insurance – is available for persons who are over 18 years of age as from 1 January 1996, unless the law provides otherwise. The application for voluntary pension insurance is accepted and records of this insurance are kept by the district social security administration office (OSSZ) that has competence over the citizen’s place of permanent residence or the place of reported residence (in the case of a foreigner).  Applications for voluntary pension insurance of persons who do not have permanent or registered residence in the Czech Republic have to be accepted by any OSSZ to which such person hands in the application.
For more information see here.