Czech government's handy new online tool helps calculate benefits owed due to COVID

Entrepreneurs can now calculate the monthly support provided by the state in connection with the pandemic and subsequent government measures on an online calculator created by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT). 

At a press conference Tuesday, Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček also announced the department has launched the website 1212.mpo.cz, where businesses and the self-employed can find support programs that have been announced in connection with the coronavirus crisis. 

The online tool can calculate support owed from, for example, COVID rental programs, nursing allowance for the self-employed, a compensation bonus for self-employed persons, or a new COVID gastro program of a closed establishment. It does not calculate help from programs such as the COVID culture or COVID tourism support programs. 

According to the director of the Department of the Business Environment and Business Entrepreneur Pavel Vinkler, the Ministry mainly focused on the smallest entrepreneurs and sole traders in their preparation of the calculator. 

According to Havlíček, the calculator could be useful not only for entrepreneurs but also for journalists, so that they can get an idea of ​​the amount of state aid.

The aim of the new website is to make sure entrepreneurs will no longer have to decide which program falls under which ministry, which they had a problem with in the past, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. 

However, Havlíček admitted that there are entrepreneurs who have so far received only very little help or did not fit into the programs. Among these are, for example, suppliers. A new comprehensive program is being prepared for them in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance (MF) and the Chamber of Commerce. 

These resources are currently only available in the Czech language.