iPhone 18 Pro on sale: CZK 34,990, EUR 1,449 and where it lands in the tax rules

Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max reached shops on Friday 18 September 2026, nine days after the announcement and six after pre-orders opened. For most readers that is a consumer story. For an employer that issues phones to its workforce, it is a procurement event — and the same handset, bought on either side of the Czech–German border, lands in two different places in the tax rules. Both halves are worth being precise about.

What went on sale, and where

Apple opened pre-orders on “Saturday, September 12, at 5 a.m. PT” and put both models on sale on “Friday, September 18” in more than 65 countries and regions, with a further 20 countries and regions beginning Friday 25 September. ¹ Czechia and Germany are both in the first group: Apple’s Czech and German newsrooms carry local prices against the 18 September date. ^{2 3}

Both models are sold in 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB, in black, silver, glacier and a new burgundy. ^{3 1}

iPhone 18 Pro entry prices at launch

Model	Czechia	Germany	United States
iPhone 18 Pro	CZK 34,990	EUR 1,449	USD 1,199
iPhone 18 Pro Max	CZK 37,990	EUR 1,599	USD 1,299

The Czech and German figures are stated by Apple inclusive of VAT; the US figure is not a comparable number, because US list prices exclude sales tax. Apple also quotes both European prices as monthly instalments — EUR 60.38 and EUR 66.62 over 24 months in Germany. ³

A20 Pro, and what “faster” is measured against

The A20 Pro is “built using the latest 2-nanometer process technology”. Apple states a new 6-core CPU with “50 percent more memory bandwidth than A19 Pro”, a 7-core GPU “up to 40 percent faster than A19 Pro”, and a “Dual 16-core Neural Engine” totalling 32 cores, which the release describes as “double the AI processing power of A19 Pro”. ¹

The camera, and the one feature with a documentary use

The 48MP Fusion Main camera gains a variable aperture: six laser-cut blades move between f/1.48 for low light, f/1.8 for portraits and f/4 for depth of field. New Pro controls expose lens aperture, shutter speed, white balance and a histogram in the Camera app. Cinematic effects can now be applied after capture to video shot at up to 60 fps, and time-lapse records in 4K and Dolby Vision HDR. ¹

One addition is not a photography feature. Apple Reference Image is an opt-in mode that produces what the release calls an “unalterable reference image” carrying “signed sensor data”. ¹

Battery, cooling and radios — and a figure that does not describe these markets

Apple quotes up to 36 hours of video playback on iPhone 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on iPhone 18 Pro Max. Wired charging reaches about 50 per cent in around 15 minutes. A next-generation vapor chamber carries “three times more surface area than the previous generation” for “up to a 40 percent gain”. The N1 wireless chip brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread; the C2 modem consumes “15 percent less energy”. ¹

The battery figures carry a condition that matters here. Apple states them for eSIM-only models, and lists eSIM-only availability for Bahrain, Canada, Guam, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and the US Virgin Islands. ¹ Neither Czechia nor Germany appears on that list.

iOS 27, and a language gap

iOS 27 arrived as a free update on Monday 14 September, with the next generation of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI rolling out in beta. Apple Intelligence is available in 16 languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, simplified and traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean. ¹

Czech is not among them. For a German workforce the assistant features are available in the working language; for a Czech one, on Apple’s own list, they are not. That is a straightforward procurement fact, and it is the kind of difference that does not appear in a price comparison.

What a fleet costs, before tax treatment

A 50-device fleet at entry configuration

Line	Czechia (CZK)	Germany (EUR)
iPhone 18 Pro × 50, as listed	1,749,500	72,450
Same, net of VAT	1,445,868	60,882
Pro Max upgrade, per device	3,000	150
Pro Max upgrade × 50	150,000	7,500
Statutory per-device expensing threshold	80,000	800

The tax line: CZK 80,000 against EUR 800

This is where the two jurisdictions separate, and the gap is large enough that it changes how the purchase is booked rather than merely what it costs.

In Czechia, an independently usable movable asset is tangible fixed property — hmotný majetek under § 26 of the Income Tax Act — only where its input price exceeds CZK 80,000. Act No. 609/2020 Sb. raised that threshold from CZK 40,000, with a transitional provision applying it to assets acquired from 1 January 2020. ⁵ At CZK 34,990 including VAT, or CZK 28,917 net, the iPhone 18 Pro is not close to the line. Nor is the Pro Max.

In Germany the equivalent thresholds are two orders of magnitude lower. § 6 Abs. 2 EStG allows the full acquisition cost to be deducted immediately only where that cost, “vermindert um einen darin enthaltenen Vorsteuerbetrag”, does not exceed EUR 800 for the individual asset. § 6 Abs. 2a EStG offers a pool written down over five years for assets above EUR 250 but not above EUR 1,000, again net of input VAT. ⁴ At EUR 1,217.65 net, the iPhone 18 Pro clears both ceilings.

Two things the cited provisions do not say, and which are therefore not asserted here. Neither tells you what depreciation period then applies in Germany once the EUR 1,000 ceiling is cleared: that is a separate question, answered by the depreciation rules and not by the price. And neither addresses VAT recovery, which turns on the employer’s own position and on any private use of the device.

What to watch

The second availability wave opens on 25 September for a further 20 countries and regions. ¹ Where a fleet is bought on Apple’s published battery figures, the eSIM-only qualifier needs resolving against the configuration actually sold in Czechia and Germany. Where Apple Intelligence forms part of the case for the upgrade, Czech remains absent from Apple’s language list. And on the German side, the number that matters for the accounts is not the EUR 1,449 on the invoice but the depreciation period that attaches to it — established from the depreciation rules, not from this release.