Havel & Partners has successfully represented Ceska Sporitelna in a dispute with the Financial Administration of the Czech Republic regarding the tax deductibility of a donation to an education foundation.
According to Havel & Partners, after the Passbook Act was repealed, Ceska Sporitelna was left with funds of nearly CZK 2 billion, which were not collected by the beneficiaries after the cancellation of the passbook "despite repeated requests from Ceska Sporitelna. Therefore, Ceska Sporitelna established the Depositum Bonum Foundation, which supports educational projects, and donated the funds to it. Subsequently, Ceska Sporitelna deducted this donation from its tax base based on the provisions of the Income Taxes Act, which allows the tax base to be reduced by the value of donations made to public institutions or non-profit organizations and foundations that raise funds publicly for science, education, research, and other publicly beneficial purposes.”
According to the firm, the tax administration did not accept the reduction of the tax base related to the donation granted by Ceska Sporitelna to the Depositum Bonum Foundation. The tax administration argued that the foundation had not used all the donated funds in the tax period concerned. However, the decision of the tax administration was rejected by the Municipal Court in Prague and annulled for illegality.
The Havel & Partners team included Partners David Krch, Josef Zaloudek, and Frantisek Korlbel and Legal Expert Alice Zemankova.
