New laws in Czechia: You will now need to declare cross-border EU cash transfers

President Petr Pavel has signed several new bills into law, including the obligation to report large cash transfers to state authorities, new powers for Czechia’s Digital and Information Agency (DIA) to control population registers, and a new significant date in the Czech Republic.

The most important change is the need to report cross-border money transfers of over EUR 15,000 (CZK 377,000) across the border. This is a tightening of conditions: currently, people have to report the transfer of more than EUR 10,000 (CZK 251,000) in cash to outside the EU – this only applies to international airports in Czechia. Pavel says the country is doing this to prevent money laundering.

This amendment, responding to recommendations from Council of Europe experts, applies to both in-person and mail or delivery transfers. Individuals are now obligated to declare the owner and recipient of the cash and, upon request from customs authorities, provide an explanation for its transportation. 

Additionally, the draft expands the responsibilities of traders in virtual assets, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. It also amends certain obligations of the Financial Analytical Office. The Chamber of Deputies has increased the maximum fines for professional chambers found to be in violation of the newly introduced anti-money laundering obligations from CZK 1 million to CZK 2.5 million.

Pavel Monday also signed into law an amendment to the law on basic registers, which will now be administered by the DIA from Nov. 1. This means the DIA will be responsible for three of the four basic registers, including the population register and the register of persons.

The population register contains data on Czech citizens, foreigners with permanent or long-term residence and migrants granted asylum or temporary protection. The name, surname, date and place of birth, sex, address of residence, marital status, number and type of ID and data for electronic identification of a person are recorded there. 

The Czech Office for Land Surveying and Cadastre will continue to administer the basic register of territorial identification, addresses, and real estate.

The Presidential Office also announced that the new Day of Samizdat, set to commemorate the communist-era fight against censorship and oppression in Czechoslovakia, will fall on Oct. 12. This will be an official “significant day” in Czechia, though it will not be a public holiday in which people get days off work.

According to a group of politicians led by Josef Bernard of the Mayors and Independents party, Oct. 12 marks the protest of 92 Czech and Slovak samizdat publishers who wrote a letter to then-communist President Gustáv Husák, denouncing the imprisonment of one of their own; Slovak-Christian activist Ivan Polanský.

However, critics, led by former dissident and current senator Hana Kordová Marvanová, argue that his published collections of texts glorified the representatives of the wartime clerical fascist Slovak state, including its leader Jozef Tiso. The originally proposed date for the Day of Samizdat had been April 27.