The British Chamber of Commerce is a partner of the Act of the Year 2020 survey.
The Act of the Year 2020 survey already has its winner. It is the Bank Identity Act, which significantly changes the method of identification in the on-line environment, followed by the Amendment to the Act on Technical Requirements for Products and the act enabling tax loss carryback. Hundreds of entrepreneurs from various sectors voted in the twelfth annual public survey, which is regularly organised by Deloitte Legal.
The winning legal regulation of the Act of the Year survey, the Bank Identity Act (No. 49/2020 Coll.), came into force at the beginning of 2021 and is considered a significant step in the digitalisation of the Czech Republic. The BankID enables a simple remote identity verification, thanks to which users can easily manage a number of operations online without the necessity of a physical visit to the relevant organisation. Such electronic solution can be applied namely in the banking sector and will also be extended to state services in the future.
“Bank identity has a great potential to be a dominant means of identification namely because it is already used by citizens in daily contact with their banks. And there are millions of such clients,” comments on the winning legislative act Zdeněk Zajíček, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic, which, together with the Czech Bar Association and the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic, assumed patronage over the Act of the Year survey this year as well. “We can see that the winning act was one that was way ahead in terms of votes again, being opted for by more than 70% of all voters. It is a clear signal that not even crises are an obstacle for the preparation of regulations, which can improve the business environment and make it much more efficient,” adds Tomáš Babáček, attorney-at-law at Deloitte Legal, chairman of the Nomination Committee and project leader of the Act of the Year.
Act of the Year and Environmental Law
Finding the best legal regulation is not the sole objective of the Act of the Year survey – the project also aims at opening a discussion about important legislative topics. This year’s topic is environmental law. Environmental protection is a matter of individuals, companies, as well as states, and Deloitte therefore organises a number of webinars, online workshops and other events as part of the Act of the Year, presenting topics such as sustainable finance, circular economy and the environmental responsibility of firms.
Second place was taken by the Amendment to the Act on Technical Requirements for Products (No. 526/2020 Coll.), thanks to which access to binding technical standards is now free. Act No. 299/2020 Coll., amending Some Tax Acts in Relation to the SARS CoV-2 Occurrence, based on which entrepreneurs can obtain funds by getting back the tax paid in the past under the condition that they were profitable before the pandemic but have now moved into the red, placed third.
A complete overview of the nominated legislative acts, more information about the Act of the Year survey and the results of the previous annual surveys are available on the project website www.zakonroku.cz.
Video results announcement in Czech