Retiring in Czechia: Residence, Taxation of the Pension, the S1 Form and Cost of Living

A citizen of the European Union enters Czechia with a valid identity card or passport. France Diplomatie indicates that French nationals must register with the Foreign Police within 30 days of arrival. Your Europe, the European Union’s citizens’ information portal, specifies that, beyond three months, a person without an occupation shows sufficient resources for themselves and comprehensive health insurance, and that the right of permanent residence is acquired after five years of continuous residence.

• Registration certificate: it is not a condition of residence; the application can be made at any time, costs 200 CZK and the certificate is valid for ten years, with no extension. A travel document, proof of accommodation, a photograph and, depending on the grounds for the stay, health insurance are required (Ministry of the Interior).
• Health insurance: the S1 form of a retiree of a French scheme meets the requirement of comprehensive cover, see below.
• Reference amount: the official pages consulted set no precise amount of resources. As a benchmark, the average gross monthly wage reaches 49,215 CZK in 2025 (ČSÚ); the required threshold should be confirmed with the Foreign Police before settling.

The page on living in Czechia details these formalities and the identification number assigned automatically.

The treaty between France and Czechia, signed in Prague on 28 April 2003 and in force since 1 July 2005, has been supplemented by the multilateral BEPS convention, applied since 1 January 2019 for France and 1 September 2020 for Czechia. It allocates the right to tax each type of income between the two States.

• Private and social security pensions (article 18): pensions and similar remuneration paid to a resident in respect of past employment are taxable only in the State of residence. A pension from the general scheme or a supplementary pension of a retiree living in Czechia is therefore taxed in Czechia (French tax administration).
• Public pensions (article 19): pensions paid by a State or a public body for services rendered to that State are taxable only in that State; they are taxable only in the other State if the recipient lives there and holds its nationality. A former French civil servant therefore remains taxed in France on this pension.
• Double taxation (article 23): France grants a tax credit equal to the French tax corresponding to income taxable in Czechia; Czechia may include these items in the tax base and grants a deduction equal to the tax paid in France.
• Czech scale: a tax resident, that is, a person who has a home or stays at least 183 days in the calendar year, is taxed on all their income, at 15% up to 36 times the average wage and at 23% beyond (public services portal). The detail is in the page on working in Czechia.
• French levies: for a retiree whose tax residence is outside France, the CSG and CRDS social levies do not apply; a health contribution of 3.2% on the basic pension and 4.2% on the supplementary pension is levied on general-scheme pensions, and 7.1% on those of the self-employed (CLEISS).

The guide to receiving your pension abroad details the payment of pensions outside France. Individual advice makes it possible to check the returns to be filed in each country.

A retiree who receives only a French pension, lives in Czechia permanently or for more than six months a year and carries out no activity there requests the S1 from their pension fund before departure (CLEISS). They present it to the Czech fund of their choice and register there; the fund issues them an insured person’s card valid in the country and forwards the care costs to the foreign body. The retiree shows that they remain a pension recipient, that they carry out no activity and that they have moved the centre of their interests to Czechia, by a declaration of residence or proof of address (VZP, the Czech public general health insurance fund).

• Care pathway: the insured person freely chooses their providers; see the guide to the Czech healthcare system.
• Co-payment: medicine co-payments are capped at 1,000 CZK a year from 65 to 69 and at 500 CZK from 70, against 5,000 CZK for an adult aged 19 to 64; the detail by item is in the page on healthcare reimbursement in Czechia.
• Health and vaccines: France Diplomatie recommends vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis for rural or wooded areas (updated 15 September 2026).

To complement this arrangement with first-euro cover or access to private providers, Expavy helps you compare options; see also the guide to health insurance for retirees abroad and the page on retirement insurance abroad.

Official income benchmarks set the context: the average gross monthly wage reaches 49,215 CZK in 2025, up 7.2%, and 52,283 CZK in the fourth quarter, with a median wage of 45,523 CZK in that quarter (ČSÚ). A retiree who rents adds service charges, energy and uncovered health costs: the guide to budgeting for health abroad helps you put a figure on this item.

• Housing: rents and prices vary strongly between Prague and the other cities, and the Czech Statistical Office (Český statistický úřad) publishes them by region. France Diplomatie warns against online rental scams: visit the home and check the landlord before paying anything.
• Currency: Czechia uses the koruna (CZK); exchange-rate movements are tracked in the “Economic indicators” block of this page, and the French pension, paid in euros, is exposed to this exchange-rate risk.

Prague has 1,409,528 inhabitants on 30 June 2026 (ČSÚ). The country has only six cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants: on 31 December 2022, Brno had 396,101, Ostrava 283,504, Plzeň 181,240, Liberec 107,389 and Olomouc 101,825 (ČSÚ). The choice of place depends on proximity to hospitals, the housing budget and the pace of life you want; Prague concentrates the French embassy and the university hospitals cited by France Diplomatie.

For a retirement project, it is useful to spend a few months on site before signing a long lease, to check the distance to health services and to plan on learning Czech for everyday procedures.

For periods worked in Czechia, the pension is requested from the Czech Social Security Administration (ČSSZ). The retirement age is 67 for people born after 1988; for those born from 1936 to 1973, it follows a schedule that rises by about two months per year of birth. The retirement pension requires 35 years of insurance under the main conditions (ČSSZ, page of 16 April 2026).

Periods completed in France and in Czechia are added together to open rights: the guide to quarters worked abroad explains the principle of totalisation.

• Request the S1 from your pension fund before departure, and check the situation of each family member.
• Inform your pension funds of the change of address and of the bank account into which the pension is paid.
• Register with the Foreign Police within 30 days of arrival; optionally request the registration certificate.
• Present the S1 to the chosen Czech fund and obtain the insured person’s card.
• Register on the register of French nationals living abroad of the French embassy in Prague.
• Plan the income tax return in Czechia, where the French pension is taxable under the treaty.

On a return to France, the insured person files form S1106, the application to open rights, with their health insurance fund: the page on return to France details the steps.