tax | In Principle

The sale of shares in a real estate company is only the beginning, as the seller must face the VAT consequences of the transaction. Is the sale of shares in real estate companies treated differently under VAT than the sale of shares in other companies? Is this correct? And what can be done about it?

Issuing a permit to demolish a building, then blocking the demolition and demanding payment of tax on the undemolished building, while ignoring a request for an individual interpretation on the matter, hardly fosters citizens’ trust in the public authorities. It is also unlawful.

One of this year’s tax amendments that may affect Polish capital market participants is the income tax exemption for taxpayers investing in IPOs of companies entering the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Under certain conditions, they will be exempt from capital gains tax.

The Polish Deal introduces several solutions for Polish capital market participants, including corporate income tax changes for companies preparing to debut on the stock exchange. This amendment came into force on 1 January 2022.

Transfer pricing is one of the focal points of taxation in Poland. The arm’s-length principle underlying transfer pricing requires related parties to provide products, services or loans to each other on terms that would have been agreed upon between independent parties. When they follow the arm’s-length principle, taxable profits recorded by each party will not be distorted by their membership in the same capital group. The arm’s-length principle must not only be followed, but also be clearly seen to be followed and this comes at the cost of compliance efforts. In this respect, three issues will be analysed below: basic compliance obligations, selected peculiarities of Polish regulations, and transfer pricing documentation for a group of companies.

The pandemic has affected the way we shop. More and more frequently, buyers order products (including Christmas gifts) online with delivery to a designated customer service location or a parcel locker, so they don’t have to wait at home in the time slots indicated by the courier. More parcel lockers are appearing in housing estates and on the street. While it is clear that constructing parcel lockers does not require a building permit, are parcel lockers subject to real estate tax?

For the costs of developing a computer game to be tax-deductible, they must meet certain criteria. Tax-deductible costs are costs incurred for the purpose of earning revenue from a source of revenue or retaining or securing a source of revenue, except for costs expressly excluded from tax-deductible costs. The method of accounting for these costs depends on whether work on the creation of a new game can be regarded as development work.

A revised bill to amend tax regulations as part of the “Polish Deal” has been submitted to the parliament. How do the proposals involving transfer pricing look now?

Whether a foreign undertaking should notify the Social Insurance Institution of contracts for specific work it has concluded is determined primarily by whether the undertaking has the status of a remitter of contributions within the meaning of Polish law.

On 19 August 2021, the President of Poland signed an act introducing a number of simplifications to VAT settlements. The changes are intended to improve taxpayers’ liquidity in connection to VAT settlements, deformalise certain procedures, and implement decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union in cases lost by Poland.

Transfer pricing regulations have been included in the package of proposed changes to tax law implementing the political programme known as the Polish Deal. Some of these changes respond to market expectations and deserve applause. Others will complicate taxpayers’ lives. Here we examine the proposed solutions.

The proposed tax changes under the Polish Deal programme enshrine in law a method of calculating the debt financing cost limit which is disadvantageous for taxpayers. They offer a carrot to buyers of shares in the form of a deduction from the tax base of qualified expenditures on the acquisition of shares as part of consolidation relief, but also a stick in the form of a complete ban on treating interest on debt financing obtained from related parties for the acquisition of shares as a tax-deductible cost.