Andrzej Duda, President of Poland, has signed the amendment to the Tax Ordinance Act introducing the so called tax circumvention clause to the Polish tax regulations. In the intention of the Legislator, this clause is to counteract the tax avoidance phenomena and combating aggressive tax optimization. Pursuant to the new regulations, the tax authority – when stating that a taxpayer has made a number of artificial actions that are contrary to the legal nature of these regulations and are aimed only to decrease the tax – may omit the tax effects of valid and effective legal actions.
Therefore legal validity and effectiveness of such legal actions is not challenged. The authority is only allowed to skip their tax results when evaluating them based on such legal activities that in a natural way correspond to the nature of the activities the taxpayer intended to achieve.
As a result, this is supposed to „discourage” the taxpayers from using the freedom of selection of the form of economic transaction aimed to reduce or eliminate tax burdens in a way that is not desired by the Legislator.
What is important – a taxpayer may safeguard itself against such course of actions and apply for a Safeguarding Opinion. Unfortunately, the cost of applying for such opinion is PLN 20 thousand.
This act, with certain exceptions, shall enter into force upon tthe lapse of 30 days from its publishing.
