Fiscal reform and corporate governance in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic became a Member State of the European Union in May 2004. Under the EU legislation, prior to adopting the euro the Czech Republic must therefore be an EU Member State and must have fulfilled the Maastricht convergence criteria. The Czech Republic is currently reporting an excessive deficit, which poses an obstacle on the way towards compliance with Maastrich convergence criteria. Therefore Czech government has decided to solve primarily public finance problems. Early April 2007, the Czech government introduced a planned legislative reform affecting taxes, social security, health insurance etc. The bill introduced by the Czech government contains many significant changes which came into effect from 2008. Moreover the president of the Czech Republic signed the amendment on the stabilization of public finances which brings alterations to the most of the currently valid tax law. The main object of approved changes is to stabilize Czech public finance, but tax and fiscal reform will have a fundamental impact on corporate governance in the Czech Republic. The aim of a paper is not to summarize all approved modifications but paper analyzes and points out significant changes which came into effect in year 2008 and focuses on estimated impact and consequences for corporate governance in the Czech Republic in a future period.