Examination Rules
Pursuant to Section 5(9) of the Act of the Czech National Council no. 523/1992 Coll., on Tax Consultancy and on the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic, as amended by the Act no. 170/2004 Coll., Act no. 284/2004 Coll., Act no. 70/2006 Coll., Act no. 312/2006 Coll., Act no. 124/2008 Coll. and Act no. 189/2008 Coll., (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”), the Presidency of the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as “the Chamber”) shall specify the details relating to the contents and course of the qualification examination, complementation examination and their parts, declaration of results and their delivery, and on an agreement with the Ministry of Finance (hereinafter referred to as “the Ministry”) pursuant to Section 11(e) of the Act it issues the present Examination Rules:
Section 1
Purpose of the examination
The purpose of the qualification examination and complementation examination shall be to verify, whether the Applicant has appropriate professional knowledge and competence to perform the Tax Adviser’s profession autonomously or not.
Section 2
Application for the qualification examination and for the complementation examination
(1) The Applicant for sitting for the qualification examination or a part thereof shall deliver to the Chamber a written application, which shall be accompanied by Annexes pursuant to Section 5(4) of the Act. The Applicants shall mark in the application those parts of the qualification examination which are the subject matter of their sitting for examination in the test period in question.
(2) The Applicant, who has received the decision of the Chamber about recognition of professional qualification with the condition of the passing of the complementation examination, shall subsequently deliver to the Chamber the application for sitting for the complementation examination or a part thereof. The copies of the application can be obtained from the Office of the Chamber at a request.
(3) If the application submitted does not meet the prerequisites prescribed, the Chamber shall invite the Applicant to complete the documentation (Section 5(4) of the Act), shall provide them with a reasonable time period for doing so and shall instruct them about consequences of the failure to remove deficiencies of the application in this period.
(4) On the day of delivery of the application for sitting for qualification examination, complementation examination or parts thereof to the Chamber, the proceedings in the matter of the qualification examination, complementation examination or parts thereof are commenced, and the Chamber shall notify the Applicant thereof in writing.
Section 3
Terms of examinations
(1) Qualification examinations, complementation examinations and parts thereof are organised basically in two testing periods per year.
a) The Applicants for the qualification examination, complementation examination or parts thereof, whose complete application was accepted by the Chamber
- from 1 August to 31 January, shall sit for the examination or a part thereof not later than by 30 April;
- from 1 February to 31 July, shall sit for the examination or a part thereof not later than by 31 October.
b) The Chamber can, in exceptional cases and on the basis of a written and properly justified application, decide about the insertion of the Applicant for sitting for the qualification examination, complementation examination or parts thereof, who has submitted the application later, into the nearest term of the examination.
c) The Presidency shall determine the specific dates of written parts of the examinations and the terms of the verbal part of the examinations not later than by 31 July of the current year for the subsequent calendar year.
(2) The Applicant shall be notified in writing of the place, term and time of organisation of each part of the examination at least 30 days in advance.
(3) If the Applicant fails to arrive to the examination or to a part thereof in the term specified, or if they do not sit for the examination or parts thereof due to the failure to pay the fee pursuant to Section 11, the Chamber shall terminate the proceedings in the matter of the examination or a part thereof. The Applicant who has properly and provably apologised for the absence from the examination or from a part thereof, for serious and regard-worthy reason, within five calendar days after the specified date of the examination or a part thereof, shall be entitled for reimbursement of the fee paid for the examination, unless they have been sitting for any part of the examination in the concerned examination period. Any unexcused absence from the qualification examination, complementation examination or parts thereof shall be assessed as the sitting for the qualification examination, complementation examination or parts thereof with the result “failed”. The Examination Board (hereinafter referred to as "the Board"), established for this purpose, shall decide about this and about the substantiation of the apology.
Section 4
Contents of the qualification examination and complementation examination
(1) The qualification examination and the complementation examination consist of written parts and of a verbal part.
(2) Written parts of the qualification examination verify the Applicant’s knowledge necessary for performing tax consultancy, especially the level of the knowledge from the fields of financial, administration, civil and commercial law, finance and economy and accounting, including capabilities of practical applications (case studies, use of ordinary as well as extraordinary remedy means, tests, examples, filling in of the tax return forms and reports). Written parts of the complementation examination verify the Applicant’s knowledge from the fields whose knowledge is not evidenced by the documents of compliance with qualification preconditions.
(3) The contents of written parts of the qualification examination shall be determined by the Presidency’s decision not later than by 31 July of the current year for the subsequent calendar year.
(4) The verbal part of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination shall be focused on:
a) insufficiencies in written parts,
b) applicable legal norms and tax norms,
c) in an orientation manner on other legal standards connected with taxes.
As complementary it is possible to ask a question concerning the formerly applicable tax regulations if it is still possible to proceed pursuant to such regulations.
Section 5
Course of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination
(1) The qualification examination, complementation examination and parts thereof shall be carried out by the Applicant before the Board.
(2) The written part of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination shall last during one and the same day for not more than max. 5 hours. In the case that an examination part takes place in more examination sites, this part of the examination shall be held in all these places at the same time.
(3) Before commencement of each of the parts of the qualification examination, the Applicants shall submit their identity card (certification of capability of making legal acts and checking of their identity) or their passport. Before commencement of each of the parts of the complementation examination, the Applicants shall submit their identity document. The Board shall be authorised to check the identity of the Applicants in the course of the written part of the examination.
(4) The written part shall be commenced by breaking the seal on the task specification at the presence of at least three members of the Board. The task specification shall be handed over to the participants of the examination who mark the documents specified according to the Board’s instructions. The commencement of the work shall only be possible upon the instruction of the Chairperson of the Board, which follows immediately after the determination of the time (hours and minutes) for the end of the examination.
(5) At least one member of the Board shall be entrusted by the Chairperson with supervision at the written part of the examination. Each of the Applicants shall make breaks individually:
a) The Applicant who leaves the examination room shall hand over all the documentation to the supervisor who shall record the time of his or hear leaving the room; after the Applicant’s coming back the supervisor shall record the time of his or hear arrival and shall hand over the documentation to him or her.
b) In the cases of a sudden nausea when the Applicant leaves the examination room in a hurry and leaves all the documentation in his or her workplace, the appointed member of the Board shall adopt measures within the meaning of paragraph a) by themselves.
(6) Written as well as verbal parts of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination are non-public. The qualification examination, complementation examination and the parts thereof can only be attended, besides the members of the Board, by a representative delegated by the Presidency in writing, who is not authorise to intervene in the course of the qualification examination, complementation examination and their parts; the attendance of such a delegated person shall be recorded into the Report on the qualification examination, complementation examination or their parts.
Section 6
Written part of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination
(1) In the course of the written part of the examination, the Applicant can use as aids the collections of legal and other regulations, the collections of judicial or other decisions, journal and book literature. They must not use any means of information technologies except for a calculator. Furthermore they cannot use in the course of the examination any communication technologies, especially any mobile telephone.
(2) The Applicant is obliged to work independently; if they fail to obey the supervisor’s warning or if they use any non-permitted aids, the documentation is taken from them, together with the recording of the time and reason for the termination of the examination, and he or she shall be expelled from the examination room. The Board shall evaluate the examination result as “failed”.
(3) After completion of the written part and handover of all the work, the Board shall notify the Applicants of the correct solution procedure. The Applicant can retain the task specification of the written part.
(4) A sufficient condition for the passing to the verbal part of the examination shall be the achievement of the minimum point number limit of all the written parts of the examination (Section 8(2)).
(5) The written part is ended with the handing over of the written work after the lapsing of the time limit. The Applicant who has left the examination room and has failed to hand over the written work, except for the cases provided for in Section 5(5)(b), shall be evaluated as if he or she was sitting for the written part of the examination unsuccessfully.
(6) The office of the Chamber shall announce the result of the written part of the examination to the Applicant in writing.
(7) The validity of the written part of the examination passed can be included into the overall evaluation of the examination if there have not lapsed more than 24 months from the passing thereof.
Section 7
Verbal part of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination
(1) The verbal part of the examination shall take place before the Board, whose composition need not be identical with the Board before which the written part of the examination took place.
(2) the time of duration of the verbal part shall not exceed 60 minutes per Applicant.
(3) The Applicant, who has failed to pass the verbal part of the examination, can repeat this part if he or she has passed all written parts of the examination, and if at the same time the time period pursuant to Section 6(7) has not lapsed yet as of the date of organisation of the repeated verbal examination.
Section 8
Evaluation of the qualification examination and of the complementation examination
(1) Written parts of the examination shall be evaluated separately.
(2) If the Applicant fails to achieve in each practical example and theoretical test in the written part of the examination at least 50% of possible points, the Board shall decide by voting about termination of this parts of the examination with the result “failed”. Not later than on the task specification of the written part of the examination, the Applicants shall be made familiar with the maximum number of points which can be achieved in individual separate examples. The Applicant shall be made familiar with the results achieved in writing, together with the evaluation of the written part of the examination.
(3) The Applicant who has failed in some of the written parts of the examination shall have the right, in the term agreed upon with the Chamber, to look into their written work for the time of thirty minutes at the Office of the Chamber, within the deadline of 3 months from the receiving of the notification of the result of this written part of the examination.
(4) After the end of the verbal part of the examination, the Examination Board shall decide about the result of the examination by voting, the Applicant not being present at the voting process. The result of the examination shall be announced by the Chairperson of the Board immediately after voting of the Board to the Applicant in a verbal manner. The Applicants shall confirm, through their signature on the Report on the qualification examination or on the Report on the complementation examination that they have been made familiar with overall evaluation.
Section 9
Organisation of the qualification examinations and of the complementation examinations and the Board work management
(1) The organisation of the qualification examinations and of the complementation examinations shall be ensured by the Office of the Chamber, in a close cooperation with the Board members. In the case of necessity it shall contact the Director or the staff members of the Financial Directorate authorised by them, in the matter of assurance of the examinations.
(2) The work of the Board shall be governed by the Chairperson of the Examination Board; he or she shall be responsible for material as well as formal correctness of the course of qualification examinations and of the complementation examinations, and timely preparation of background documentation materials, i.e. the Reports of qualification examination, complementation examination of the Tax Adviser or their parts (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”).
(3) The members of the Board shall be made familiar with the solution procedure of the written parts not later than before the commencement of the evaluation of the written parts.
(4) The Report shall be signed by all the present members of the Board. It is necessary to record into the Report the results of the written parts. In the Report on the verbal part it is necessary to conduct the record on principal specifically asked questions of the verbal part of the examination and their answering or non-answering by the Applicant.
(5) In the Report on the course and result of the written part of the examination of the Applicants the present members of the Board shall record, after each part of the examination, the examination result, they shall sign the Report and they shall hand over the same immediately to the Chamber Office. The Office of the Chamber shall file the Report on a safe place until the time of organisation of the next part of the examination.
(6) The Chairperson of the Board shall ensure that the Chamber should be namely informed about successful and unsuccessful Applicants immediately after evaluation of the written part of the examination.
(7) In the case that the evaluation of the written part of the examination is not carried out immediately after its completion, the written work shall be put into an envelope or box which shall be marked by at least three members of the Board through their seal and signature. Until the time of the joint breaking of seals before the commencement of evaluation the envelope shall be placed in a safe place.
(8) After the end of the verbal part of the examination, the present members of the Board shall record the result of the examination.
(9) The Office of the Chamber shall provide information about the result of the examination exclusively in writing.
Section 10
The Board
(1) The Board shall have four members and shall consist (in one half) of representatives of state financial authorities appointed by the Ministry and (in the other half) especially of Tax Advisers and other professionals in the field of economic, tax or legal theory and practice appointed by the Chamber.
(2) The members of the Board shall be governed by the principles of professional ethics and they shall be bound by the obligation of confidentiality with regard to the course of qualification examinations and complementation examinations, especially about the knowledge and lack of knowledge of individual Applicants and about the decision making of particular members of the Board.
(3) The Chairperson of the Board shall always be a representative of the state tax authorities.
(4) The Board shall form a quorum if there are present at least three members of the Board. The Applicant shall pass the examination if an absolute majority of those present vote for such a result. In the case of tie, the Chairperson’s vote shall prevail.
(5) The Board member shall be entitled to a lump-sum reimbursement of expenses for one day of examinations (Section 10(1)(e) and (3) of the Act) at the amount determined by the Presidency of the Chamber.
Section 11
Fee for qualification examination or for a part thereof
The fee for the qualification examination or for a part thereof, held in one of the test period, shall be determined at an amount of CZK 5,000.-. The fee shall be payable not later than 20 days before the organisation of the qualification examination or a part thereof. As a variable code it is necessary to state the number of the invitation to pay the payment for the examination.
Section 12
Transitional and final provisions
(1) The present Examination Rules shall become effective on 1 July 2008. As of the same date all previous wordings of the Examination Rules shall cease to be valid as of the same date.
(2) The proceedings commenced before the present Examination Rules’ becoming effective shall be governed by the Examination Rules valid at the time of their commencement.
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