Despite many doubts related to the mandatory use of structured invoices under KSeF, the new system will go into effect in Poland on July 1, 2024.
Taxpayers have been facing many challenges since the introduction of the KSeF (voluntary application is possible since January 1, 2022). At first glance, it seems that this only concerned the format of electronic invoices. It quickly turned out that the preparation and introduction of KseF involves an in-depth analysis of internal processes in the taxpayer's organization concerning the issuance and receipt of invoices, communication with contractors, data collection, as well as the involvement of the IT department and employee training.
Moreover, in relation to our clients, entities based in Poland and foreign entities registered in Poland solely for VAT purposes, there are several substantive issues that also require analysis and preparation.
The obligatory use of the KSeF will apply to foreign taxpayers who do not have their registered office in Poland but have a FE in Poland that participates in the supply of goods or the provision of services. Considering the controversy in determining a fixed establishment, the mandatory use of KseF will bring about further concerns.
Becoming acquainted with criteria, which keeps changing over the years during practice by authorities and administrative courts, will allow you to determine the risk of having a FE in Poland and decide on whether to use KSeF (even in a voluntary form).
From the point of view of foreign entities registered in Poland solely for VAT purposes which use KSeF (obligatory or optional), it should be considered that not all transactions will be documented in the KSeF system. This applies, for example, to ICA and import transactions.
In addition, in order to correctly complete the JPK-VAT declaration, taxpayers must also consider data from other sources - such as cash registers, sales invoiced to natural persons (consumers) or invoices received from entities that do not use KSeF.
This introduces the requirement to record data from various sources and aggregate them into the JPK-VAT declaration.
Invoicing in the KSeF system means the introduction of additional dates that must be distinguished correctly for the VAT settlement to be correct.
From the VAT point of view, the essential date is the date identified at the time of sending the xml file with the invoice to KSeF. If the system does not reject the invoice, it will be assigned a KSeF number and will enter legal circulation. This date is visible on the UPO document.
However, in the event of a failure of the KSeF system or when converting amounts expressed in a foreign currency, the date of invoice issuance completed by the taxpayer in the process of preparing data for a structured invoice will be relevant for VAT.
The uniform invoice structure and platform proposed by the Ministry of Finance provides several significant benefits (immediate and long-term) for entities obliged to use them.
Integration of the accounting system with the KSeF system allows for easy and quick issuing of invoices in accordance with one format while eliminating errors and the risk of "losing" the invoice. It increases the security of data transmission and facilitates archiving and storage for the period required by tax regulations.
An important aspect is also increased efficiency in the process of issuing and receiving invoices and the lack of additional costs related to printing, sending, and storing paper invoices.
The obligation to issue structured invoices also means exemption from the obligation to submit JPK_FA files at the request of the office.
As part of preparation for the use of KSeF, the taxpayer should review the currently used processes for issuing and receiving invoices within their organization. The fundamental aspect is ensuring access to all data required in the structured invoice scheme. Any data gaps may lead to updates in purchase and sale processes. Of course, this will require the introduction of IT solutions or an extension of the functionality of existing tools.
The basic deadline for a VAT refund is 60 days from the date of submission of the JPK_VAT declaration. Shortening this period to 40 days will have a positive impact on the taxpayer's financial liquidity. However, this will be possible after meeting the conditions listed in Art. 87 section 5b of the VAT Act, i.e.:
The Faster Directive, which is currently being drafted by the European Commission, includes provisions for a procedure to provide relief from excessive withholding tax that may be levied by a Member State on dividends from publicly traded shares and, where applicable, interest on bonds publicly traded and paid to registered owners who are tax resident outside that Member State.
The draft Directive indicates that "excessive withholding tax" is to be understood as the difference between the amount of withholding tax levied by a member state on payments of dividends or interest on securities to non-resident owners at the general domestic rate and the lower amount of withholding tax applied in accordance with a double tax treaty or specific national legislation (reduced rate or exemption provided by CIT or double tax treaty rules).
Important: It appears that the provisions of the Directive will have a limited scope and will be primarily relevant for investors investing in publicly traded companies and securities.
Some of the changes to be introduced by the Directive may apply to all taxpayers, not just participants in regulated trading. The published draft proposal envisions the establishment of a common digital tax residence certificate. Digital tax residence certificates are to contain uniform content, irrespective of the issuing Member State, i.e., the Member State of tax residence.
The draft indicates that Chapter II of the Directive (on digital tax residence certificates) applies to all Member States for all persons who are residents in their jurisdiction for tax purposes. It seems reasonable to expect the establishment of a common digital tax residence certificate of residency as a general mechanism that would also apply to, among other things, royalty payments or payments made outside the public trade.
The proposed regulations assume that Member States will be obliged to issue a digital tax residence certificate within one day, provided that they receive a specific set of information and provided that there are no exceptional circumstances justifying the delay.
Given the significant differences in form and content found in certificates of residence issued by different EU member states, the move to standardize the form, content and rules for issuing certificates of residence at the EU level and shorten the period for interested entities to obtain them should be seen as positive.
The proposal also includes the establishment of a national register of certified financial intermediaries. In order to take advantage of the withholding tax relief procedures underlying the directive, investors will need to be able to work with financial intermediaries certified to provide these services. The directive also defines the conditions for registration, registration procedures and deletion from the register of certified financial intermediaries (CFIs).
Certified financial intermediaries will be subject to specific reporting obligations. In the Directive proposal, it is specified that the information provided to the tax authorities should enable the determination of the ultimate investor's identity and their potential eligibility for a reduced withholding tax rate at the source.
Łukasz Kempa, Tax Director
In our opinion, there is a risk that the addition of another entity to handle withholding tax and the need to meet certain requirements to be recognized as a certified financial intermediary may make the whole process more difficult, prolonged and expensive (especially considering the above-standard requirements regarding the "real owner" criterion and the conduct of "real economic activity" presented by the Polish tax administration and presented, among others, in the Ministry of Finance's draft clarifications of September 25, 2023 regarding withholding tax collection).
The proposal provides for two withholding tax relief systems, i.e., the withholding allowance system and the prompt refund system.
Under the withholding relief system, the correct amount of tax is to be calculated by the withholding agent at the time of dividend/interest payment. The reduced tax rate or tax exemption is thus to be applied directly at the time of payment.
Under the quick refund system, tax is to be withheld at the higher rate applicable in the source country, but the excess tax is then refunded within a set time frame of a maximum of 25 days from the date of submission of the application or from the date of compliance with the reporting obligation, whichever of these dates is the later. This should take place within 50 calendar days from the date of payment.
Tomasz Śliwiński, Senior Tax Specialist
Both under the withholding tax relief system and under the quick refund system, the appropriate entities in the procedures would be CFIs acting on behalf of their investors. The idea of a 25day refund period can be considered very favorable; however, in our opinion, in the Polish context, without the creation of a comprehensive list of requirements for tax authorities to determine that due diligence by the payer has been observed and that the conditions for applying the preferential treatment are met, it is not very realistic.
The project assumes that Member States will be obliged to apply the provisions of the Directive from January 1,
E-invoice - a trending topic that has been the cause of a lot of controversy among taxpayers and consulting companies in recent months. Serving as the key to global digitization of tax settlements, it will soon replace traditional VAT invoices - both paper ones and those sent electronically between taxpayers, either in PDF format or as a scan.
E-invoicing is nothing else than the electronic exchange of invoices in a structured format between two entrepreneurs. Poland is not the only country introducing regulations in this regard. E-invoicing continues to grow worldwide and applies not only to the Member States of the European Union, which are bound by the provisions of Directive 2014/55/EU, but also to countries such as Brazil or South Korea.
There are two possible models for e-invoicing. The first one is "post-audit", in which entrepreneurs issue, send and store electronic invoices using various electronic systems. This model is carried out without the intermediation of tax authorities, although they are still able to verify these documents at any time but often only in a limited scope.
More far-reaching in terms of fiscal authority supervision is the so-called "clearance model" in which three entities are involved - the seller, the tax administration and the buyer. Within this model, businesses use strictly defined government systems.
An e-invoice must have a structured format, and very often, before sending it to the customer, the authorities must “clear” (validate) it. Subsequently, the invoice is assigned a unique number in the system. In some countries, the invoice has to be issued by the tax authority itself on behalf of the seller, after the seller has provided all necessary data. Thanks to these tools, the tax administration gains “real-time” control over the e-invoicing processes of each mandated taxpayer. This model is currently growing in popularity amongst European countries, such as Italy, France or Poland.
The implementation of the clearance model is associated with full transparency of taxpayers’ settlements – thus for national tax authorities the benefits are clear: new compliance tools to detect and reduce tax fraud. As a result, the tax offices will have access to very extensive information on both sales and purchase invoices of each taxpayer. For companies using e-invoicing platforms, this does not immediately have to be associated with solely negative consequences.
E-invoicing introduced within an organization means reduced costs of exchanging and storing paper invoices (which should be considered a more eco-friendly solution too), eliminating human errors, as well as streamlining and standardizing the process of delivering invoices to contractors. In the long run, the clearance model will also allow for the elimination of VAT returns. However, this will only be possible upon the introduction of e-invoices as a mandatory requirement for all taxpayers.
Legislators across the world are working hard on the new regulations, setting the timeframes and the scope of entities subject to the e-invoicing mandate, which is considered at various levels, from B2B, to B2G and B2C transactions. Poland will join the group of countries with mandatory e-invoicing between entrepreneurs (B2B) starting from July 1st, 2024.
These changes concern people responsible for signing TPR declaration, as well as combining the statement on the preparation of local transfer pricing documentation with the TPR declaration into one document.
Before these changes were introduced, the statement on the preparation of local transfer pricing documentation and a TPR declaration were submitted separately. The declaration was usually signed by all members of the management board (according to the representation), and the TPR declaration could be signed by one person authorized to submit declarations on behalf of the company.
Currently, the statement on the preparation of transfer pricing documentation is part of the TPR declaration. It may be signed by the following entities:
The amendment to the tax regulations meant that from January 1st 2022 taxpayers may submit TPR information through a proxy. If the company would like to submit the declaration this way it is required that the proxy is a person with professional qualifications of a lawyer, legal advisor, tax advisor or an auditor.
As an authorized proxy, KR Group offers comprehensive support in the preparation of the TPR declaration and its filing.
Download PDF file here.
The Polish legislature specified that the obligation to use KSeF will only apply to foreign taxpayers with a FE in Poland who are involved in transactions that result in an invoice. A taxpayer with a FE in the territory of Poland but issuing an invoice as part of other business operations not related to that FE, will not have to use KSeF, unless they voluntarily opt for such an option.
On the surface level, this issue seems quite clear. Meanwhile, when a taxpayer begins to analyze their situation, the list of questions grows exponentially. Is the FE unquestionably located in the territory of Poland? Are activities performed in the FE subject to mandatory invoicing in KSeF?
Unfortunately, these are issues that the legislature itself is uncertain about. In the original version of the bill introducing KSeF, the register of VAT taxpayers (the so-called "white list") was to include information on FEs. However, in the final version of the bill, these provisions were eliminated.
The situation is made more difficult by the fact that the legislature announced severe financial penalties for violating the obligation of issuing an invoice through KSeF. During consultations on the new draft, the Ministry of Finance indicated that it would prepare guidelines for determining a FE. Unfortunately, given the guidelines issued so far, it should be assumed that many unresolved doubts will remain, and it will be up to taxpayers to resolve them. It is difficult to confirm at this time what form these guidelines may take, i.e., tax clarifications that have protective legal force for taxpayers who comply with them, or clarifications that do not carry such force. Moreover, it is difficult to say when, if ever, such guidelines will appear.
Meanwhile, there is not much time left until July 1st, 2024, i.e., when mandatory KSeF goes into effect and this problem starts affecting many foreign taxpayers.
Below we provide you with a few guidelines to consider when determining whether a FE is in the territory of Poland.
Polish regulations do not define the concept of a fixed establishment. This is defined in Article 11(1) of EU Regulation 282/2011 (hereinafter Reg. 282/2011). A "permanent place of business" should be understood as any place, other than the taxpayer’s headquarters, which is characterized by sufficient permanence and an adequate structure in terms of personnel and technical facilities to enable the receipt and utility of services provided for the own needs of that place.
Important: The fact that a taxpayer has a VAT identification number is not sufficient in determining a permanent place of business within a given country.
When interpreting the concept of "permanent place of business,” referring to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rulings, it should be indicated that the fixed establishment has an appropriate structure in terms of personnel and technical facilities, necessary for conducting business. It is also worth indicating that the scale of conducted business activity makes it possible to consider that the taxpayer's activities at this location are not carried out on a periodic basis, but on a stand-alone, individual basis in relation to the activities of the company's headquarters.
Defining the concept of a FE in the aforementioned regulation does not resolve all doubts. The definition remains unclear and requires constant interpretation at both the EU and national level. The CJEU, as well as the national courts of individual EU member states, and the Fiscal Office have repeatedly voiced opinions on these issues. Unfortunately, instructions contained in these rulings often result in changes in the approach to this problem, causing legal uncertainty for taxpayers.
Primarily, a permanent place of business should be characterized by certain degree of involvement, making it possible to determine that the activity is conducted not in a transient or periodic manner. Accordingly, it is necessary to have a specified minimum scale of activity, which is an external indicator that activities at that location are carried out on a permanent basis. Most often, this constitutes personnel and physical assets accumulated at that permanent location which are utilized to carry out business activities.
If an activity carried out in an EU country, despite the involvement of significant human and material resources, has the characteristics of a project i.e., after its completion, the resources will be withdrawn, then it cannot be deemed as permanent. Such activity does not comprise an FE. Furthermore, it is not necessary to have one's own personnel and technical facilities to determine a permanent place of business within a country. However, the taxpayer must have - based on the requirement of a sufficient permanence of the place of business - comparable control over personnel and technical facilities.
The CJEU's case law is up to date in this regard, including the judgment C-168/84 Gunter Berkholz, C-231/94 Faaborg-Gelting Linien A/S, C-190/95 ARO Lease By, C-260/95 Commissioners of Customs and EB. Sp. z o.o.cise v. DFDS A/S, C-390/96 Lease Plan LuB. Sp. z o.o., as well as C-605/12 Welmory Sp. z o.o.
Secondly, the technical infrastructure and personnel involvement must be in close alignment with the performance of taxable activities. Thus, to be considered as a FE, a permanent place of business must not only utilize goods and services, but itself perform taxable activities.
As another condition, the activity carried out must be characterized as independent, e.g., at the decision-making level, from other activities of this entity, such as in the country of its headquarters. It cannot be, for example, ancillary to the main activity carried out in another country. In the judgment in Case C-190/95 (ARO Lease BV), the CJEU stated that a permanent place of business must be able to conduct its activities independently. This means, according to the CJEU, that such a permanent place of business must be able to (i) draw up contracts, or (ii) make decisions of a managerial nature (see paragraph 19 of the judgment).
In this regard, it is worth mentioning the CJEU ruling C-333/20 of April 7, 2022, in which the CJEU stated that "Article 44 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC (...) must be interpreted as meaning that a company with its registered office in one Member State does not have a fixed establishment in another Member State on the ground that that company owns a subsidiary there that makes available to it human and technical resources under contracts by means of which that subsidiary provides, exclusively to it, marketing, regulatory, advertising and representation services that are capable of having a direct influence on the volume of its sales.” In addition, the CJEU ruled that the same personnel facilities cannot be used simultaneously for the provision and receipt of the same services.
In its judgment C-232/22 of June 29, 2023. The CJEU ruled that the "taxable person receiving services, whose business is established outside the European Union, does not have a fixed establishment in the Member State in which the provider of the services concerned – which is legally independent from that recipient – is established, where that recipient does not have a suitable structure in terms of human and technical resources capable of constituting that fixed establishment, even where the taxable person providing the services provides to that taxable person receiving services, pursuant to an exclusive contractual undertaking, tolling services and a series of ancillary or additional services, contributing to the business of that taxable person receiving services in that Member State.”
It is also worth considering the domestic case law.
For example, in its judgment of October 22, 2021, ref. I FSK 1519/19, the Supreme Administrative Court, referring to CJEU and domestic case law, indicated that:
The penalty for a failure to issue an invoice through KSeF is to be up to 100% of the amount of VAT included in the invoice. However, the penalty will be mitigable, rather than fixed at 100% of the VAT amount.
The simplest way to minimize this risk for entities that are unsure about having a FE in Poland would be to settle for optional invoicing in KSeF. Of course, opting for such a solution involves adjusting internal processes as well as accounting and IT systems.
Another possibility is to implement a solution such as self-invoicing, in which the buyer of goods issues an invoice on behalf of the seller. This solution, however, may be opted for only by certain entities that have rather regular recipients and all of whom would agree to enter into a self-invoicing agreement.
Another option is to apply to the Director of National Tax Information for an individual interpretation in this regard. However, it should be noted that the duration of obtaining an interpretation is, in principle, 3 months. However, in extreme cases, e.g., in the situation of a dispute before a court, the process may last up to several years.
Another reason why it is important to determine whether we have a FE in Poland is that the seller will not be obliged to provide us with an invoice in the existing way (e.g., by email, letter, etc.) if we have a FE in Poland participating in these transactions. In such a situation, both sellers and buyers will have a problem. The former may have a problem with the form in which they should forward the invoice, while the latter may not know that they have received it. This can clearly interfere with the processes of correct VAT reporting in VAT returns. It may happen, for example, that we miss the deadline for a VAT deduction without being aware that we have received an invoice in KSeF, or, for example, we may not know that we have received an invoice correction in KSeF. In such situations, it will be necessary to come back to the VAT returns and correct them after the allowed settlement deadlines.
The problem of establishing a permanent place of business in Poland cannot be underestimated. In view of the nearing deadline for the introduction of KSeF, we encourage you to analyze your situation in terms of the FE and take all measures to minimize risk and avoid problems in this regard.
Companies that have a photovoltaic installation and feed the generated energy into the grid from the installation, and are VAT payers, need to look carefully at the billing system adopted with the electricity utility for accounting and tax purposes.
For example, the billing system referred to as net-billing, introduced as a result of an amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (the RES Act), raises the issue of the tax settlement of the amount indicated on invoices from the energy supplier as a reduction of the amount to be paid often referred to on invoices as the prosumer deposit under Polish VAT regulations.
In the currently issued interpretations of individual tax regulations in the field of VAT, when settling in the so-called net-billing system introduced in the Renewable Energy Act, the interpretative authority presents the position that a company that is an active VAT payer, which has such amounts reducing the gross amounts payable resulting from the balance of the photovoltaic energy deposit, acts as a VAT payer, and by introducing energy into the grid energy company will supply goods to the energy company within the meaning of Art. 7(1) of the VAT Act, which would mean it would be subject to VAT.
Such a position has been confirmed in a number of individual interpretations, including an individual interpretation dated May 30, 2023, with reference 0114-KDIP4-1.4012.164.2023.1.BS, in which the tax authority indicated that: "Consequently, you, as a prosumer - an active VAT taxpayer, by introducing energy into the power grid, make a supply of goods to the power company within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the Law. The circumstance of mutual compensation of the prosumer's obligation towards the energy company and of this company towards the prosumer (which follows from Article 4c (3) of the RES Act), does not affect the determination of the chargeable nature of the supply of electricity generated in your micro-installation by you."
An entrepreneur who is a prosumer and an active VAT payer who supplies energy from renewable energy sources to an energy company for a fee in the net-billing system is obliged to issue a VAT invoice for this purpose, which should be done no later than upon the expiry of the payment deadline. Tax liability in connection with the delivery will arise when the invoice is issued. However, if such an entrepreneur does not issue an invoice or issues it with a delay (i.e. after the payment deadline), tax liability will arise when the payment deadline expires.
In order to determine the VAT taxable base for a VAT-taxpayer company generating electricity from a RES installation, the value due to the prosumer, determined as the product of the amount of electricity injected into the grid by the company after hourly balancing and the market price of electricity, should be reduced by the amount of output VAT. The value on the invoices from the power company presented as a deduction amount due to the settlement of energy injected into the grid from RES installations is a gross amount (with VAT). The above position was expressed, among others, in an individual interpretation dated January 12, 2023 with ref. 0114-KDIP4-1.4012.417.2022.1.APR.
Due to the need to analyze the settlement model used in a given company in the event of having a photovoltaic installation used in business activities, if you have any doubts or questions, please contact KR Group.
Invoices documenting the purchase of electricity from companies with electrical installations feeding the energy grid from photovoltaics include an entry described as a prosumer deposit, which reduces the gross amount payable from such an invoice. These types of entries concern the value of surplus energy introduced into the grid from a photovoltaic installation. These entries are associated with the system of energy settlements with prosumers introduced by the Act on Renewable Energy Sources (hereinafter referred to as the RES Act).
The RES Act introduced a system of prosumer billing through value-based billing, known as net-billing. The term prosumer deposit, prosumer, micro-installation or prosumer account is defined in the Article 4c(1) of the RES Act.
According to the RES Act, prosumers can be both legal entities and non-legal entities, or entrepreneurs who are end users within the meaning of the Energy Law, and who generate electricity exclusively from renewable energy sources for their own needs in a micro-installation, provided that this does not constitute their predominant economic activity as defined in Article 40(2) of the Act of June 29, 1995 on Public Statistics.
The predominant type of activity, according to the PKD code system, may be determined based on the percentage share of particular types of activities in the total value of sales revenues. A micro-installation includes installations of a renewable energy source with a total installed capacity not exceeding 50 kW, connected to a power grid with a rated voltage lower than 110 kV or with a combined thermal power of not more than 150 kW, in which the total installed electrical power does not exceed 50 kW.
In the billing model established by law, the seller, i.e., the power distributor to which the prosumer yields surplus energy from a renewable source such as a photovoltaic installation, is obliged to keep an account for the prosumer called a "prosumer account.” This enables tracking the value of energy introduced by the prosumer into the grid and the value of energy consumed by the prosumer.
Important: the total amount of the prosumer deposit includes the unsettled value and will not always be equal to the value of the energy introduced by the prosumer into the grid within a given month.
In practice, questions arise as to whether the value reducing the amount to be paid on energy invoices for the prosumer deposit should be reported as taxable income due in the CIT settlements of companies which are CIT taxpayers, and for prosumers by virtue of owning photovoltaics and supplying the grid with energy derived from this source.
Another source of ambiguity is the provision of Article.4(12) of the RES Act, according to which the surplus electricity referred to in paragraph 11 does not constitute income within the meaning of the Corporate Income Tax Act of February 15, 1992 (Journal of Laws 2022, item 2587, as amended).
What is problematic is the lack of a tax exemption directly in the CIT Act for this type of contribution from the prosumer. Even though the wording of the aforementioned provision seems clear, including it in a "non-tax" act may have various negative effects on the security of its application (from tax authorities being unaware of the existence of such a provision to the refusal of issuing individual interpretations under the false pretext that this provision goes beyond the scope of tax law).
The situation of taxpayers is made more difficult due to the lack of a clear interpretation of the aforementioned regulations in the context of settlements of this kind, e.g. in the form of a general interpretation - the need to take into account whether to treat the entire due amount as income in CIT or to treat it as a gross amount that also includes output VAT. In this situation, it may be helpful to individually analyze specific cases and their scale within a given company in order to avoid the risk of erroneous settlement in terms of CIT or VAT, as well as to take measures that reduce the potential tax risk associated with the settlement of such events.
We encourage you to contact our experts who can provide you with support in this scope.
However, exceptions are provided to this general rule.
Pursuant to art. 106b section 1b of the VAT Act, advance invoices will still have to be issued in cases referred to in art. 106i section 3-8 of the VAT Act, i.e. e.g. in the case of supply of construction or construction and assembly services to taxpayers, supply of printed books, accounting for the return of publications or packaging or at the specific request of the counterparty.
Importantly, where the taxable person exercises the option not to issue an invoice on account, the final invoice issued by the taxable person should include the date on which the supply of goods or services was made or completed and the date on which the advance was received, if such a date is specified and differs from the date on which the invoice was issued.
If, on the other hand, the taxable person will issue interim invoices, he is obliged to include on the final invoice the numbers identifying previous invoices in the National e-Invoice System and, in the case of invoices other than structured invoices, the numbers of previous invoices.
The changes, these are of a clarifying nature, the position of the tax authorities in this respect has long been in line with the new provisions. However, the clarification of the provisions should be assessed positively, as they remove uncertainty for taxpayers in this regard.
The new limit is PLN 450 per employee per month.
This change applies to vouchers, coupons or prepaid cards received by employees, entitling them to purchase meals in catering or retail establishments.
Exemption from Social Security contributions of up to PLN 450 applies to:
The Social Security exemption does not apply to B2B associates/contractors.
Meals in the scope of Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) - according to Art. 232 of the Labor Code - the employer is required to provide employees working in particularly demanding conditions which involves high physical effort, with appropriate meals and drinks free of charge, if deemed necessary for prophylactic reasons.
An employer issuing prophylactic meals to employees on an OSH basis should have a list of staff positions entitled to such meals and an assessment of energy required at the workstations, from which it will be clear that the effective energy expenditure of the body during a work shift requires the provision of such a meal to an employee working in a particular position.
Detailed rules for the issuance of meals and beverages and the requirements they should meet, as well as the cases and conditions under which they should be issued, are set forth in the Decree of the Council of Ministers of May 28, 1996 on prophylactic meals and beverages.
According to the regulation - prophylactic meals must be prepared from properly selected ingredients to cover the need for a certain amount of energy and nutrients. It is also worth recalling that the workplaces where employees should receive meals and drinks, as well as the detailed rules for serving them, are always determined by the employer in consultation with the company's trade unions or employee representatives.
If the employer does not have the possibility of providing meals due to the type of work performed by the employee or for organizational reasons, they may provide during working time:
In order to benefit from the exemption from social and health insurance contributions, the following conditions must be met:
The benefits are exempt from taxation, as they are covered by the exemptions regulated in Art. 21 (1) pt. 11 or pt. 11b of the Personal Income Tax Act. According to the wording of these provisions, the tax exemption applies to a benefit in kind, i.e. a prophylactic meal, as well as to the value of vouchers, coupons or other benefits received from the employer entitling an employee to obtain meals, food or non-alcoholic beverages on their basis, in cases where the employer, despite the obligation under the OHS regulations, is unable to issue meals, food or non-alcoholic beverages to their employees.
The tax exemption, as in the case of the Social Security exemption, can be applied only if the employer is obliged to issue benefits in the form of beverages and prophylactic and restorative meals by specific provisions of labor law, i.e. from the field of occupational health and safety.
The catalog of substitutes for a prophylactic meal that benefit from tax exemptions includes, among others, the issuance of prepaid cards, as long as the employee collects evidence in the form of receipts showing that the funds credited to the card were used to purchase prepared meals, food and non-alcoholic beverages (individual interpretation by the Director of the National Tax Information dated March 3rd, 2022, No. 0112-KDIL2-1.4011.1217.2021.2.DJ).
If hot meals or their legally stipulated substitutes are also provided voluntarily by the employer to employees in other jobs, the value of these benefits should be added to the income of these persons from the employment relationship.
According to Article 12(1) of the Personal Income Tax Act, income from the employment relationship includes all kinds of monetary payments and the monetary value of benefits in kind or their equivalents, regardless of the source of financing of such payments and benefits, and in particular, among others, monetary benefits incurred for an employee, as well as the value of other gratuitous benefits or partially paid benefits.
The monetary value of the benefit should be determined according to the purchase price of the meal from another entity, or according to the price for external entities when the employer operates a public buffet or canteen, or according to the market price when an in-house buffet or canteen is available only to employees.
The Polish Constitutional Court, in a judgment dated July 8, 2014, ruled that we can speak of an employee's income in strictly defined cases:
Income arises on the condition that it is possible to determine the value of the meals consumed by a particular employee, i.e., to assign a specific meal income to the employee. An employee who receives a meal subsidy must pay tax on it as on wages. In the case of persons paid under employment contracts, this will be income from the employment relationship. For contractors and board members paid on this basis, it will be income from personal activities.
Vouchers for employees that are entirely financed from the Company Social Benefits Fund are subject to Social Security relief under § 2 (1) (19) of the Ordinance on detailed rules for determining the basis for calculating contributions to pension and disability insurance.
In order for the exemption to apply, the vouchers must be accounted for in accordance with the regulations of the Social Benefits Fund and should be awarded according to a social criterion that includes, among other things, the living and material situation of the employed persons.
Under Article 21(1)(67) of the Act on Personal Income Tax, the value of benefits in kind received by an employee and cash benefits received by him in this regard, financed entirely from the funds of the company's social benefits fund, was exempted from tax in total up to an amount not exceeding PLN 2,000 in a tax year, with the limit applying from 2020 until the end of the tax year following the year in which the state of epidemics declared due to COVID-19 was cancelled, i.e., until the end of 2023 (Article 21(1)(67) of the Act on Personal Income Tax). pt. 67 in conjunction with Article 52l pt. 3 of the Act on Personal Income Tax). The in-kind benefits referred to in this provision are not vouchers, vouchers and other tokens, entitling them to exchange for goods or services.
On September 1st, 2023, the amendment to the decree of the Minister of Family and Social Policy will go into effect, according to which the monthly limit on meal subsidies for employees, on which Social Security Administration dues do not have to be paid, will increase. The new limit will be PLN 450 per employee per month.
This change applies to vouchers, coupons or prepaid cards received by employees, entitling them to purchase meals in catering or retail establishments.
Legal basis: Ordinance of the Minister of Family and Social Policy of August 9th, 2023, amending the Ordinance on detailed rules for determining the basis for calculating contributions to pension and disability insurance - Journal of Laws of August 22nd, 2023, item 1665.
Replacing paper declarations with Standard Audit File or abandoning traditional tax records was only the beginning of the e-revolution. Both our approach to monthly VAT Compliance processes and the scope of information provided to tax authorities have changed. The Fiscal Administration knows more about us and our businesses. This time, however, it is the Ministry of Finance and the tax office competent for settling VAT under the special One Stop Shop procedure who had to cooperate to adapt their internal systems to the business reality of taxpayers.
In 2021, after the breakthrough Brexit, one of our clients chose Poland as the so-called country of identification for VAT settlements on services provided in one of the simplified OSS procedures. Pursuant to the pan-European regulations, a taxpayer from a third country may settle VAT under the union OSS procedure on electronic B2C services if they have a fixed establishment in the territory of the country of identification.
Unfortunately, in 2021 OSS registration forms in Poland were not ready for post-Brexit. The VIU-R electronic forms available at that time provided that the UK was still a Member State. Following the recommendation of the Ministry of Finance, the taxpayer was registered thanks to the provisional solution where its country of establishment was filled out in the “Name of the entity” section. Many tax settlement periods later, when the relevant forms were updated by the Ministry, we submitted to the tax office an update in this respect. However, the facts remained the same. The taxpayer had its registered office in the UK and this location has not changed for the last 2 years.
However, after sending the first OSS return after the update, we received an e-mail with information about its rejection. It turned out that the ministerial system does not cover all the scenarios referred to in the regulations known to us widely as the so-called "E-commerce package". According to the system, a non-EU taxpayer could submit its returns only under the non-union OSS procedure, as information about a fixed establishment in our country could not be recorded properly. The system had significant loophole in this respect and thus blocked our client's return. The case was reported to the appropriate department of the Ministry of Finance and after obtaining a legal opinion from the VAT Department, we received information about the adaptation and effective update of the system and confirmation from the tax office itself that the return could be submitted again.
This time successfully. The undoubted success, however, was accompanied by a bit of stress - what if the automation of settlements stood in the way of the correct application of the law and our business reality? Were it not for our intervention, the consequences of rejecting the return by the system would be severe and very costly for the taxpayer requiring retroactive registration in all Member States of consumption and payment of VAT along with late payment statutory interest.
During the last 3 years (due to COVID-19 threat), the deadlines for reporting national tax schemes (hereinafter: MDR) have been suspended until the 30th day following the date of cancelling the state of epidemic threat. Throughout this period, a significant number of companies with solely domestic transactions postponed this obligation until the end of the state of epidemiological threat.
IMPORTANT: From July 1st, 2023, the state of epidemic emergency was canceled. Consequently, from August 1st, 2023, reporting of domestic tax schemes will become mandatory again.
We encourage you to review your transactions (for the last 3 years) to determine the scope of your MDR obligations and take appropriate reporting actions.
In the event of failure to provide the proper authority with information on the tax scheme or the submission of information after the deadline, the entity may be fined up to 720 daily rates, i.e. over PLN 28 million.
Moreover, in the event of a conviction for a tax offense in connection with the violation of the provisions on reporting tax schemes, the court may order a ban on conducting specific business activity.
If you are unsure about your company's MDR obligations, we suggest a short teleconference during which we will discuss MDR reporting obligations within your company from a practical perspective. We will also suggest realistic steps for protecting your company from the consequences of a possible inspection by authorities. We cordially invite you to contact Miłosz Saramak (m.saramak@krgroup.pl).
The fundamental document is the VAT-R application form (available in both Polish and English). This form is also used to register for intra-Community transactions.
Apart from the registration application, the registration process also includes an identification application on the NIP-2 form.
The VAT-R registration application and the NIP-2 update application may both be submitted in electronic form (a qualified signature is required) and paper form.
* The aforementioned documents must clearly portray the entity’s form of representation. Any doubts as to representation may prolong the registration process.
If the taxpayer intends to commission another entity to perform activities related to the handling of their VAT settlements, in addition to the aforementioned documents, it is also worth submitting appropriate powers of attorney which enable acting on a taxpayer’s behalf in front of tax offices in Poland, e.g.:
Appointment of a general attorney may be important in a situation where the taxpayer wants the Tax Office to direct all correspondences to the entity servicing it in the scope of VAT.
Currently, in Poland, there is no other possibility to indicate the correspondence address than to specify the address of the general attorney in the PPO-1 form. Indicating such an address is important and facilitates VAT settlement, because the office sends correspondence in Polish to this address. In a situation where this correspondence is sent to the taxpayer's foreign address, it may interfere with the flow of information and compliance with the deadlines set by the tax authorities for performing indicated activities. Unfortunately, the submission of a power of attorney does not take place, as in other cases, by submitting it directly to authorities. This procedure requires setting up a taxpayer's account on a special portal run by the National Revenue Administration - the so-called Taxpayer Portal (pl. Portal Podatnika). The taxpayer can appoint a general representative only via this portal.
All documents submitted to the Tax Office which were drawn up in Polish must be submitted in their original copy or must be notarized. Our experience shows that offices accept situations in which they receive copies of documents during a visit to the office, and the originals are presented for inspection.
Documents in a foreign language must be submitted along with a certified translation from a certified document.
For foreign entities, the head of the Tax Office will most often be the Head of the 2nd Tax Office in Warsaw, Śródmieście.
Registration for VAT, including VAT-EU, is free of charge.
If the entity acts through a proxy - submitting a document confirming the granting of the power of attorney, or an officially certified copy of the power of attorney, is subject to a fee of PLN 17.
The fee should be paid at the cash desk of the Municipal / City Office relevant to the seat of the tax authority to which the VAT-R registration application is submitted, or by bank transfer to the account of this Office, with the title "stamp duty for power of attorney". Stamp duty may also be paid by your representative.
The mere submission of a VAT-R registration application does not mean that the entity will automatically become registered for VAT.
Before registering an active or exempt VAT payer, the head of the Tax Office verifies the data provided in the application. In this regard, the address of the entity may undergo verification of whether it exists, or whether it corresponds to the type and scale of the business. The tax office may also check whether a given entity has the appropriate conditions to carry out the indicated type of activity, e.g., vehicles for transporting goods or warehouse space.
The head of the Tax Office does not conclude registration without notifying the interested party if one of the following instances occur:
If the taxpayer submits all documents and they are properly signed by authorized persons, registration by the tax office is usually carried out within 5-7 working days.
However, it must be considered that the entire process - collecting all documents, making translations, submitting them by the taxpayer, and then the registration with the Tax Office - all take about 30 days on average.
According to Polish regulations, foreign taxpayers without a registered office or permanent place of business in the EU (excluding entities based in Great Britain and Norway) are required to appoint a tax representative in Poland.
A tax representative is appointed by concluding an agreement with an entity authorized to provide such services. The agreement is also submitted to the Tax Office.
The tax representative is responsible for settling VAT in Poland on behalf of and for the benefit of the taxpayer. In the scope of these settlements, the tax representative is jointly and severally liable for the taxpayer's tax liabilities. This risk means that entities providing representation services most often require additional collateral, e.g., in the form of bank guarantees.
In this article we will focus on the obligations and difficulties related to the registration for value-added tax (VAT).
Registration is mandatory for:
Business activity for VAT purposes is any activity conducted by producers, traders, or service providers (including natural resource extractors), farmers, and freelancers.
Economic activity specifically includes activities involving the use of goods or intangible assets on a continuous basis for gainful purposes and activities performed in the territory of Poland subject to value-added tax (VAT).
Companies intending to make intra-Community purchases and delivery of goods or import or provision of services for which the taxpayer is a service recipient established in another member state, are also subject to registration.
Even if a given entity is not an active VAT payer, they are obliged to register for VAT-EU, provided that the value of intra-Community purchases exceeded PLN 50,000 in the given or previous tax year.
However, the obligation to register as a VAT-EU taxpayer does not apply to the provision of services to individuals from other EU countries who do not conduct business.
Activities subject to VAT include:
In practice, the obligation of taxation as for most of these activities, in strictly defined cases, may be shifted onto the buyer under the so-called reverse charge (RCM). Then the seller is not obliged to undergo registration given that activities conducted in Poland are only those to which RCM is applicable.
However, this is not always possible, e.g., when transactions subject to VAT are carried out between two taxpayers with their registered office or permanent place of business outside of Poland, or when intra-Community acquisition of goods takes place in Poland.
Most often, foreign entities are required to register for VAT purposes when they engage in cross-border transactions to or from Poland, such as intra-Community supply of goods, export of goods or intra-Community acquisition of goods.
In simple terms, taxpayers are exempt from the obligation to register for VAT purposes when performing activities in the territory of Poland related to the handling of a very wide range of air and sea operations in passenger and cargo traffic.
However, if a given entity performs activities in Poland that are exempt from VAT, they are not obliged to register for VAT.
At this point, it is worth noting that an entity becomes a VAT payer due to factual circumstances, i.e., the performance of activities which are taxable in Poland. Registration is only a formality. If despite the obligation an entity fails to register, they are not exempt from the obligation to pay tax plus interest, but they also become vulnerable to criminal fiscal liability. The VAT registration application should be submitted to the proper head of the tax office before performing the first VAT-taxable activity. Simply put, this will usually be the supply of goods or services subject to taxation in Poland.
Similarly, in the case of intra-Community transactions, the declaration must be filed before carrying out the first such transaction.
According to Art. 31y of the act on combating COVID-19, the deadlines for reporting tax schemes other than those of a cross-border nature (so-called domestic tax schemes) have been suspended until the 30th day following the date of repealing the state of epidemic threat and the state of an epidemic announced due to COVID-19.
The suspension of the MDR deadlines due to COVID was in force for over 3 years - from March 30th, 2020. During this time, some entities continuously reported tax schemes, while others postponed this obligation until the end of the state of epidemiological threat.
The cancellation of the state of epidemic emergency means that from August 1st, 2023, reporting of domestic tax schemes will once again become mandatory.
All entities that may be subject to the obligation of reporting tax schemes should review their transactions for the last 3 years to determine the scope of their MDR obligations.
Failure to comply with the obligations regarding reporting tax schemes (MDR) may result in severe sanctions. According to Art. 80f of the Fiscal Penal Code, failure to provide the competent authority with information on the tax scheme or providing information after the deadline is punishable by a fine of up to 720 daily rates. Moreover, in case of a conviction for tax offenses due to a violation of the provisions on reporting tax schemes, the court may order a ban on conducting specific business activities.
The largest inconvenience in proving BO status is verifying whether business activity is in fact carried out in the country of residence, and if payments are received in relation to the business operations performed. This process is usually complex, requiring not only evidence of an office, employees, required equipment, but proof of individually performed business activities with the use of own resources, source documentation (extracts from register of entrepreneurs, financial statements), etc.
It must be noted that Polish law provides two definitions of a beneficial owner, each explaining an entirely different case. To avoid confusion, a distinction between these definitions must be made.
Beneficial owner - natural person(s) who exercises, directly or indirectly, control over a customer through powers held, as a result of legal or actual circumstances, enabling the exertion of impact on activities / actions undertaken by a customer or natural person(s), on whose behalf a business relationship is established, or an occasional transaction conducted.
Namely, a beneficial owner is:
The Act specifies rules and procedures for counteracting money laundering and financing of terrorism, and the conditions for conducting business activity by certain obligated institutions. Hence, this act does not define rights and obligations resulting from tax law and its definition is not applicable in the context of withholding tax (WHT).
This Act governs income taxation of legal persons and capital companies in the process of incorporation. Within this Act, a beneficial owner is an entity:
Only this definition of a beneficial owner should be considered in the context of WHT.
Should you have any questions/issues related to WHT feel free to contact us.
The obligation to perform periodic examinations and health and safety training was suspended shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic in Poland. In practice, this means that a significant number of organizations has not directed their employees to periodic occupational medicine examinations and health and safety training for the past three years.
The employer is obliged to update the suspended obligations related to directing employees for:
The employer is not obliged to direct employees to outstanding health and safety examinations and training as early as July or August. It can be done within the following deadlines:
Pursuant to the provisions of the Labor Code, the employer may not allow an employee to work without a valid medical certificate stating that there are no contraindications to work in a specific position. This provision means that if an employee refuses to undergo the examination, the employer doesn’t have the right to allow them to work. In this case, the employee is not entitled to any remuneration during the time of not performing work.
An employer who abandons the obligation to order periodic examinations and allows an employee to work without valid examinations is subject to a fine from PLN 10,000 to PLN 30,000.
Important: Occupational health examinations are mandatory. Periodic and follow-up examinations should be conducted during working hours, if possible. The employee retains the right to remuneration for the time they do not work due to examinations. The cost of the examinations is borne by the employer.
Preliminary examinations do not apply to people reemployed by a given employer for the same position or for a position with the same working conditions, based on another employment contract concluded within 30 days after the termination or expiration of the previous employment contract with that employer.
From July 1st, 2023, the employer will no longer be able to send an employee on a holiday leave from previous years of up to 30 days within the period imposed by the employer, without the need to obtain the employee's consent and bypassing the leave schedule.
The obligation of granting leave will return, as a rule, in accordance with the leave plan agreed with employees or, in the absence of a leave plan, directly with the employees.
Forcibly sending an employee on leave will only be possible in the following situations:
With the end of the epidemic emergency, the limitation on compensation and severance pay in the event of termination of employment, which during the pandemic period was limited to 10 times the minimum wage, will also disappear.
As of July 1st, 2023, employers will be subject to a limit of 15 times the minimum wage when paying severance pay or compensation on termination of employment.
Return of "Fiction of Delivery." The 14-day period for the delivery of a letter returns
If an employee ignores a letter sent to them via mail by the employer, 7 days after the second delivery notice the letter is considered as delivered.
In practice, this means that the termination of an employment contract sent by the employer through the Polish Postal Service and not picked up by the employee will be considered delivered after 14 days from the first delivery attempt.
Important! All terminations previously sent and not received for the last 3 years during the state of epidemic emergency will be considered as effectively delivered after 14 days from the date of lifting the epidemic emergency, i.e. contracts will automatically terminate on July 15
During the period of the state of epidemic threat, employers who experienced a decrease in turnover or a significant increase in the burden on the remuneration fund could withdraw from applying a higher contribution than specified in the act contribution to the Company Social Benefits Fund.
From July 1, 2023, the cancellation of the state of epidemic threat will mean that these employers need to return to the amount of the ZFŚS deduction guaranteed by the provisions of collective labor agreements or remuneration regulations.
On June 5th, 2023, an amendment to the Law on Value Added Tax and certain other laws was published. Are these changes revolutionary? Not really. Nevertheless, their introduction should be assessed as very beneficial. Some changes are forced by the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, e.g. in the area of VAT sanctions or settlement of VAT, while others are already functioning in practice.
The simplifications included in the SLIM VAT3 package concern the following areas:
The limit for small taxpayers' sales value has been raised from the current 1.2 to 2 mln EUR, allowing a larger number of entities to benefit from quarterly VAT settlements and the use of the cash accounting method.
The possibility of using funds in the VAT account has been expanded, allowing them to be used, for example, to pay taxes on the extraction of certain minerals, retail sales tax, so-called sugar tax, shipbuilding tax, "jigger fee," and tonnage tax.
A system of VAT penalty gradation has been introduced, requiring consideration of the taxpayer's economic situation. This means that tax authorities, when determining VAT penalties, will take into account specific circumstances of each case, and the penalties will be individualized.
The requirement to have an invoice for intra-Community acquisition of goods (WNT) when deducting input tax on this account was abandoned. Provisions have been introduced to allow corrections to be submitted outside the OSS and IOSS systems directly to the Łódź Tax Office.
The rules for the use of the conversion rate for correcting invoices where the invoice is issued in a foreign currency have been clarified, as well as the possibility of using the rate from the day before the issuance of the collective correcting invoice.
Introduction of the possibility of waiving the adjustment if the difference between the preliminary proportion and the final proportion does not exceed 2 percentage points.
The obligation to agree in the form of a protocol with the head of the tax office on the proportion to deduct input tax was eliminated. However, the necessity to notify the head of the tax office of the adopted proportion was introduced.
The amount allowing the recognition that the proportion of deduction determined by the taxpayer is 100%, in a situation where the proportion exceeded 98%, was increased from the current 500 PLN to 10000 PLN.
The transfer of funds between VAT accounts in a group has been regulated - the possibility of transferring funds from the VAT account of a group member to the VAT account of the group representative has been introduced.
Simplification was introduced in the scope of reporting settlements related to invoicing (e.g. adapting the conditions for issuing invoices to e-receipts) and keeping sales records using cash registers (e.g. the possibility of waiving the obligation to print fiscal documents by taxpayers). A new electronic receipts distribution system was introduced.
Consolidation of issuing binding tax information by designating a single authority responsible for issuing WIS (binding individual tax interpretations), WIA (binding tax rulings), WIT (binding tax information) and WIP (binding tax opinions), which will be the Director of the National Tax Information.
The regulations regarding the principles of issuing and applying WIS and WIA, i.e., binding national tax information, have been harmonized. The fee for requesting the issuance of WIS has been abolished.
Most of the changes come into effect on July 1, 2023, while some of them are already in force, such as the provisions regarding VAT penalties.
Under Labour Code Art. 6720, the employer should set forth the rules for remote work in the following documents:
If employees use their own equipment, the employer is required to pay them a cash equivalent.
The regulations do not set the amount of the equivalent, but indicate that in determining it, the following in particular should be considered: the standards for consumption of materials and use of working tools, including technical devices, documentation of their market prices, and quantities of materials used for the employer’s needs and market prices of such materials, standards for consumption of electricity, and costs of telecommunications services.
Important!
The employer will not be obligated to organize the remote workstation in compliance with occupational health and safety rules and regulations, or to exercise care for the state of the premises and technical equipment. The employer can conduct initial health and safety training online, as well as periodic follow-up training.
Before being admitted to perform remote work, the employee must sign a statement prepared by the employer (in paper or electronic form) concerning occupational health and safety rules, as well as a declaration that the remote workstation at the place indicated by the employee and agreed with the employer ensures safe and hygienic working conditions.
Important! This declaration must contain the employee’s undertaking to comply with occupational health and safety rules.
It is up to the employee to arrange the workstation to reflect ergonomic requirements, and to keep the workspace clean and fit for work.
Under Labour Code Art. 6728, the employer has a right to inspect the employee’s performance of remote work, occupational health and safety matters, and compliance with rules for security and protection of information, including data protection procedures, under the rules set forth in the agreement between the employer and the trade union or representative organization, the working policy, the employer’s instructions to the employee, or the agreement between employer and employee.
Inspections are to be conducted in agreement with the employee, at the remote work site, during the employee’s working hours. The employer should adjust the method of conducting the inspection to suit the place where remote work is performed and the type of work. Inspection activities must not infringe the privacy of the remote worker or other persons, or hinder the intended use of the household space.
Remote work cannot be ordered or agreed in the case of:
On the issue of occupational risk, the employer may prepare a universal assessment of occupational risk for specific groups of remote workstations. Then, before being admitted to perform remote work, the employee must confirm in writing or electronically that he or she has reviewed the professional risk assessment and the information concerning occupational health and safety rules for performing remote work, and undertakes to comply with them.
The professional risk assessment should contain information concerning:
On-the-job accidents when performing remote work:
In the case of remote work, employers will have to apply as relevant the Labour Code provisions concerning work accidents set forth in Art. 234 §1 and 237 §1(1)–(2). The employer should conduct an inspection of the accident site after an accident during remote work is reported, within a time agreed by the employee, or a household member if the employee is unable to agree on a date due to the employee’s health condition, and members of the post-accident team.
The post-accident team can waive the inspection of the site of an accident during remote work if the team finds it has no doubts about the circumstances and causes of the accident (Labour Code Art. 6731 §10).
The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) will decide questions of payment of accident insurance benefits and whether the employee is entitled to such benefits. ZUS will also decide whether the accident was caused by the employee intentionally or as a result of gross negligence.
If an accident occurred during remote work by an employee under the influence of alcohol, narcotics or psychoactive substances, and the employee significantly contributed to causing the accident, medical documentation will be required before awarding accident insurance benefits.
Under the regulations governing remote work, for the purpose of assigning overtime work and calculating overtime pay, overtime work by remote workers should treated as if it were performed at the workplace (Labour Code Art. 151 and following).
Assignment to remote work does not in itself constitute a change in the permanent place of work, but only enables work to be performed at a place other than the permanently fixed location. As a rule, if an employee working remotely is instructed to visit the office, it will not constitute business travel.
The Regulation of the Minister of Family and Social Policy of 6 March 2023 (Dz.U. 2023 item 471) amending the Regulation of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy of 10 December 2018 on Employee Documentation (Dz.U. 2018 item 2369), which entered into force on 7 April 2023, expands section B of the personnel files to include documents concerning performance of remote work.
These documents should be stored in section B of the employee’s personnel file. If the employer maintains personnel files in paper form, and receives a document in electronic form, the employer should print it out and certify that it conforms to the document submitted electronically.
The amendment introduces further solutions to simplify and accelerate VAT settlements.
The Ministry of Finance has so far introduced two packages designed to simplify VAT settlements, namely SLIM VAT 1 and SLIM VAT 2.
The new third edition of SLIM VAT 3:
The full text of the Act can be consulted at this link.
According to Article 177 § 1 of the Labor Code, during the period of paternity leave or part thereof, until the date of termination of such leave, the employer may not:
Paternity leave duration
The duration of paternity leave has not changed and remains at 2 weeks (Article 1823 § 1 of the Labor Code).
The condition for granting this leave is for the employee, the father, to submit an application in paper or electronic form no later than 7 days before the start of the leave.
Paternity leave may be taken in parts, with the proviso that none of the parts may be less than a week (a week is to be understood as 7 consecutive calendar days (Art. 1831§ 1 of the Labor Code in conjunction with Art. 1823 § 1 of the Labor Code).
In the event that an employee applies for paternity leave earlier than the legal deadline for such application, the protection will only take effect from the legal deadline, i.e.: 7 days before the commencement of paternity leave or part thereof.
The employer is obligated to consider the employee's request. Refusing to grant paternity leave to an employee who meets all the requirements specified by law is a violation of the employee's rights and is subject to a fine (Article 281 § 1 point 5 of the Labor Code).
The request for granting paternity leave or a part of it to the employee-father should include:
The request should be accompanied by the documents specified in § 16 of the regulation on applications concerning employee entitlements related to parenthood:
For more information on claiming maternity benefits for the period of paternity leave by a self-employed father of a child, click HERE. https://www.zus.pl/-/jak-uzyskac-zasilek-macierzynski-przez-ojca-dziecka-za-okres-urlopu-ojcowskiego
Pursuant to Article 36 of the Law of March 9, 2023, amending the Labor Code and certain other laws (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 641), an employee being a father raising a child on the date of entry of the amendment into force is entitled to paternity leave under the rules set forth in the existing regulations, but only until the child completes:
In the case where the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) is the payer of the maternity benefit during the period of paternity leave, the father of the child must submit the following documents: