Obligation to publish a report on realization of a tax strategy already for 2020?
As we already informed you in our previous posts (see here), one of the most important changes entering into force as of 1 January 2021 concerns publishing reports on realization of so-called tax strategy. The obligation lies on tax payers with tax revenues > EUR 50 m / p.a. and Polish Tax Groups.
Recently the Polish Ministry of Finance (MF) announced on its official website that the first reports will have to be published for 2020, with 31 December 2021 as the deadline. While this statement is clearly in contradiction with the non-retroactive effect of tax law, it is also difficult to justify it based on the wording of the new law. According to the MF, such an obligation can be drawn from the fact that no transitional period was provided in the amendment act.
It is difficult to give value to the MF’s statement as it is just a “written point of view” and most importantly, in our view – it was incorrect. Nevertheless in term of the tax strategy we believe it is worth to start relevant preparations / analysis in the first half of 2021 what will secure proper fulfillment of the new obligation for 2021 and – if the controversial statement of the MF is confirmed – will also ease the preparation of the report on 2020 tax strategy.
Lastly, while the penalties for non-compliance are not as high as may be in other non-compliance situations (up to approx. EUR 56k) one can expect that the tax authorities, and especially the MF, will verify if the reports were published, and will likely comment on the outcome on a more public basis.
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