On Sunday 24 March, we were delighted to welcome experienced tax adviser Jan Bonaventura from BREDFORD Consulting. During the morning teaching session, he introduced our students to the latest trends in employee remuneration.

The lecture covered everything every employer should know when planning employee benefits – not only in 2024.

Lecture topics

Using practical examples and case studies, students explored:

• why employers do not always need to aim for maximum tax deductibility,
• how to correctly determine an arm’s length and reasonable price,
• how to address tax residency issues,
• how Czech courts currently approach the issue of bogus self-employment,
• how the Coordination Committee works,
• and they also learned more about the Long-Term Investment Product (DIP).

Long-Term Investment Product (DIP) and employee shares

These investment and savings products, designed to support state-supported retirement planning, were among the topics that interested our students the most.

Mr Bonaventura patiently explained various real-life situations that could arise in practice.

The session generated many curious questions, and our originally planned four-hour lecture continued for another half hour into the lunch break. Thank you for that!

Interview with Jan Bonaventura

Because we also think of our readers and future students, we asked Mr Bonaventura five short questions after the lecture.

How was your lecture at Sting today?

It was wonderful and very enjoyable! I especially have to praise the students, because getting up on a Sunday morning and coming to a lecture about taxation deserves recognition. It is clear that they are highly motivated.

What do you enjoy most about tax advisory?

The variety. Taxation overlaps with many other fields, and you need to continue developing your knowledge in those areas as well. Of course, that can sometimes be challenging, but it makes the profession even more interesting.

How will artificial intelligence change the tax adviser profession?

Current tools are not yet advanced enough to replace the work of tax advisers, but in the future they will certainly make routine tasks easier and help with processing information.

A lot will also depend on how the Financial Administration approaches the use of artificial intelligence, as this will influence the future development of working with and checking data. We will see whether it ultimately means more or less work.

If you had the opportunity, what would you change about taxation?

I would continue with the trend of simplifying the tax system. Although this topic is discussed frequently, there has been limited progress so far.

Regarding the approach of the Financial Administration, I would make anonymised versions of individual guidance and other statements provided by the authorities publicly available. This would improve access to information for other taxpayers.

What would you say to people considering a career in tax advisory?

They should consider whether they are willing to keep learning continuously. If the answer is yes, it is a very interesting and promising field at the intersection of economics and law. I can highly recommend it.

Prepared on behalf of Sting by Pavel Semerád – guarantor of the Accounting and Tax Case Studies course, where we invite inspiring professionals from the fields of accounting, taxation, and auditing.

Join us next time and apply for your studies today.