DIP and Pension Savings: How the Self-Employed Can Deduct up to 48,000 Kč

Most tax parameters for 2026 are beyond your influence by now: rates, credits, and expense allowances are set. Retirement saving is the exception. However much you send this year to pension savings (penzijko), a long-term investment product (DIP), or life insurance, that much (up to the limit) you can deduct from your tax base in the return filed in 2027. And because the limit is calculated per calendar year, the decision is being made right now, in the second half of 2026.

In this article, we'll go through how the shared 48,000 Kč deduction works, how the individual products differ, and what conditions you must meet so you don't have to pay the tax benefit back retroactively.

One Shared Limit of 48,000 Kč per Year

Since 2024, a unified tax support regime applies to so-called retirement savings products. You can deduct up to 48,000 Kč per year from your tax base, and that's for all supported products combined, as confirmed by the Ministry of Finance. So it's not 48,000 Kč for pension savings plus 48,000 Kč for DIP; the limit is shared.

The limit covers contributions to:

• supplementary pension insurance and supplementary pension savings (penzijko),
• the long-term investment product (DIP),
• private life insurance,
• long-term care insurance.

How you split the limit between the products is up to you. You can save the full 48,000 Kč in a single product, or spread the amount any way you like, for example half into pension savings and half into DIP. The details of splitting the deduction between products are described by the Financial Administration in its income tax Q&A.

Pension Savings: Only the Part Above 1,700 Kč a Month Counts

With supplementary pension insurance and supplementary pension savings there is one important catch. Not your whole contribution counts towards the deduction, but only the part of the monthly deposit exceeding the amount that attracts the maximum state contribution, i.e. the part above 1,700 Kč per month. This rule is stated by the Financial Administration.

In practice this means:

• You send 1,700 Kč a month: you draw the maximum state contribution, but the tax deduction is zero.
• You send 3,000 Kč a month: 1,300 Kč a month goes towards the deduction, i.e. 15,600 Kč a year.
• To fully use the 48,000 Kč limit through pension savings alone, you'd have to send 5,700 Kč a month.

With DIP and life insurance, by contrast, contributions count towards the limit from the first koruna. That's why the self-employed who really want to make the most of the limit often benefit from a combination: pension savings up to the maximum state contribution and the rest into DIP.

DIP: What It Is and Who Provides It

The long-term investment product is not one specific account, but a legal wrapper for investment or savings products intended for provision in old age. According to the Ministry of Finance, it can be offered by banks, savings and credit cooperatives, securities dealers, investment companies, and self-managed investment funds. The provider must be entered in the register kept by the Czech National Bank, which you should verify before signing a contract.

Inside a DIP you can hold, for example, shares, bonds, mutual funds, or money in a savings account. Compared with pension savings, you have greater control over what you invest in and usually lower fees; on the other hand, you receive no state contribution. Tax support for DIP applies to contracts concluded from 2024 onwards.

Conditions: 120 Months and Age 60

The tax support is tied to two conditions that must be met simultaneously:

• withdrawal of funds no earlier than 10 years (120 months) after the product's creation,
• and at the same time no earlier than at age 60.

If you cancel the product or withdraw from it earlier, you lose the tax benefit and must add the claimed deductions back to your taxable income, up to 10 years retroactively, as the Ministry of Finance warns. The clawback is done through the tax return as other income.

Who Won't Use the Deduction

The retirement savings deduction is a non-taxable part of the tax base. That has two practical consequences:

• The self-employed in the flat tax regime cannot claim the deduction. The flat tax takes no account of deductions or credits, and no tax return is filed. You can of course keep saving for retirement, just without the tax deduction.
• The self-employed with a zero or low tax base won't use the deduction in full. Non-taxable parts cannot be carried forward to later years; whatever you don't claim this year is forfeited.

Conversely, for the self-employed who file a return and pay tax at 15 % or 23 %, it's one of the simplest legal ways to reduce their tax, because the money remains yours, just set aside for old age.

What to Watch Before the End of 2026

Example: a Graphic Designer with Income of 1,200,000 Kč

A graphic designer uses the 60 % expense allowance, giving her a tax base of 480,000 Kč. She sends 1,700 Kč a month to pension savings (maximum state contribution, but zero deduction) and in 2026 opened a DIP, into which she sends 3,000 Kč a month.

• Deduction from DIP: 12 × 3,000 = 36,000 Kč.
• New tax base: 480,000 − 36,000 = 444,000 Kč.
• Saving at the 15 % tax rate: 5,400 Kč a year.

If she wanted to use the whole limit, she can send a one-off deposit of 12,000 Kč by the end of December and the saving rises to 7,200 Kč.

Conclusion

The retirement savings deduction is a rare case where tax optimisation simply means saving for yourself. The key numbers for 2026: a shared limit of 48,000 Kč, with pension savings only the part above 1,700 Kč a month counts, withdrawal no earlier than after 120 months and at age 60, otherwise a clawback of up to 10 years back. Anyone who files a return should check their limit this year; after New Year's Eve, nothing can be made up.