Month: December 2019

GWW partners and associates wish you a wonderful Christmas!

 

We would like to inform that our offices will be closed on the 24th of December. On the 23rd and 27th of December, we work until 5 pm.

 

Failure to register in the Register of Real Beneficiaries (UBO) within the statutory deadline may result in a fine of up to PLN 1 million, whereas reporting false data may result in criminal liability of representatives of the registering company.

On 16 January 2020 in Warsaw, we will conduct workshops during which we will discuss doubts arising during identification of the beneficiary and registration of companies in the Register of Real Beneficiaries. The meeting will be chaired by Aldona Leszczyńska Mikulska, attorney-at-law, partner, and Tomasz Piejak, trainee attorney-at-law from the advisory practice for individual clients of GWW.

Registration: warszawa@gww.pl

Participation in the workshops is free of charge.
The number of places is limited. Registration is made on a first come, first served basis.

Program to download in pdf.

 

On 7-8 November 2019, a conference of the Lower Silesian Regional Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland was held covering matters related to issuing use permit decisions in respect of buildings. The managing partner of GWW Legal, Joanna Sebzda-Załuska, attorney-at-law, investment process expert, took part in discussion panels regarding the investment process, including the quality of cooperation between architects and public administration authorities from the region. Ms. Joanna Sebzda-Załuska also gave a lecture on “Building permit design vs. building law vs, construction supervision”.

Apart from representatives of the Lower Silesian Regional Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland, the conference was attended by representatives of architectural and building administration authorities, as well as building supervision authorities at the poviat and voivodship level. During the conference, important issues were discussed and experience was shared, in order to standardize and streamline procedures applicable in these areas. The dialogue opened up the possibility of developing a uniform practice in areas that at the stage of applying legal regulations raise a number of doubts and problems. The conference was held at the Wojanów Palace in Wojanów.

More information available at: https://izbaarchitektow.wroc.pl/aktualnosci/konferencja-dot-zagadnien-zwiazanych-z-wydawaniem-decyzji-o-pozwoleniu-na-uzytkowanie-budynkow-palac-wojanow-listopad-2019/

Joanna Sebzda-Załuska, expert in the field of investment process, attorney-at-law, managing partner at GWW Legal, conducted a training in Wroclaw on “Preparation of an investment for the use permit".

And on 26 February 2020 in Warsaw, another training will be conducted by Joanna Sebzda-Załuska. The meetings are primarily addressed to investors, general contractors as well as designers and construction site managers. More information and registration for the training: https://kompetencja.com.pl/opisy-szkolen/przygotowanie-inwestycji-do-pozwolenia-na-uzytkowanie-2/ 

The trainings on “Preparation of an investment for the use permit” are carried out under the auspices of GWW.

During today's Conference, we have officially presented the Report: Instrumental Initiation of Fiscal Criminal Proceedings in the Process of Audit and Tax Proceedings – Analysis of the Practice of Application of Article 70 § 6 item 1 of the Tax Code.

Analysis of materials collected through access to public information led to the conclusion that tax authorities very rarely institute fiscal criminal proceedings before the end of proceedings at the administrative stage of the instance. However, when they decide to do it, they do it very precisely. Fiscal criminal proceedings are instituted before the end of the tax assessment proceedings almost only when the tax liability is “at risk of being barred by limitation”. The following data confirm this statement:

• Audit proceedings during which fiscal criminal proceedings were initiated represented only 5.1% of all audit proceedings conducted by the authorities during the period considered.
• Audit proceedings during which criminal proceedings were instituted in 91% of cases represent proceedings relating to tax liabilities that would expire at the end of a given year.
• Over 70% of fiscal criminal proceedings initiated in the last year of the limitation period for tax liabilities were initiated in the last quarter of this year.

Participants in the discussion on the problem presented in the Report were as follows:

• Andrzej Ladziński, partner at GWW,
• Adam Abramowicz, SME Ombudsman,
• Alicja Sarna, Vice-President of the Tax Policy Group of the Lewiatan Confederation Tax Council,
• Professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University Wojciech Morawski, PhD., Department of Public Finance Law at the Nicolaus Copernicus University,
• Andrzej Nikończyk, Chairman of the Lewiatan Confederation Tax Council.

The Report was developed by GWW lawyers: Andrzej Ladziński, Joanna Waśko, Wioletta Waśko, Kacper Kudlek, and Tomasz Burczyński.

Project partners who contributed to the development of the Report are, inter alia, GWW Law Office, Lewiatan Confederation Tax Council, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Fiscal Study Center of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

The report can be downloaded below.

This Thursday, on 12 December, there will be a Conference on: Tax liabilities without limitation, during which we will present a Report on the practice of instituting fiscal criminal proceedings to suspend the limitation period for tax liabilities.

The Report was prepared using data obtained from tax audit offices. Analysis of these data led to the conclusion that tax authorities very rarely decide to initiate fiscal criminal proceedings before the end of the audit procedure. So what circumstances make such an initiation occur in some cases? Does it always happen when the tax liability is threatened by limitation? What is the course of such fiscal criminal proceedings?

During the conference, we will present answers to these questions and invited experts will discuss the results of the Report. The discussion will be participated by: Adam Abramowicz, SME Ombudsman, Professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University Wojciech Morawski, PhD., Andrzej Ladziński, partner at GWW. The conference is organized by the Lewiatan Confederation, which actively supported the authors at the stage of work on the Report.

Link to register for participation in the Conference: http://ikongr.es/c/cIcAHqfB

Today, the Supreme Administrative Court examined Andrzej Ladziński's complaint about the judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Szczecin dismissing the complaint against the decision refusing access to public information (file reference number I OSK 205/18). Until now, administrative courts were of the opinion that a natural person requesting access to processed public information must demonstrate that he or she has a real impact on changing the functioning of public bodies and, as an example of such a person, pointed out to an MP or a local elected representative. Today's judgment may turn out to be groundbreaking for natural persons who are seeking access to processed public information.

In the oral part of the justification, the Supreme Administrative Court indicated that it is possible that an applicant being a natural person who does not perform any of the abovementioned functions may have a real impact on changing the way of interpreting a given legal provision, and even on a legislative change, if results of the research which he or she conducts based on the available data are presented to relevant entities (Ombudsman, judges of administrative courts, Ombudsman for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).

Interestingly, the subject of Andrzej Ladziński's request for access to public information was data on instrumental initiation of fiscal criminal proceedings. The Supreme Administrative Court recognized that it is in the public interest to collect and publish data on this topic, if this harmful practice is to change as a result of such activities.

And soon GWW will publish an extensive report on the instrumental initiation of fiscal criminal proceedings, developed based on data from those tax administration authorities that have made them available through access to public information.

In today's issue of Rzeczpospolita, we will find an article on the business constitution and extension of the limitation period.

Andrzej Ladziński commented on the harmful phenomenon of instituting fiscal criminal proceedings just before the expiry of the limitation period for tax liabilities.

– Initiating fiscal criminal proceedings to extend the limitation period for tax liabilities is an instrumental application of the law. In the Criminal Code, it is described in Article 231 as exceeding the powers of an official – notes Ladziński.

The article is available at the following link and can be downloaded in pdf: https://www.rp.pl/Firma/312039914-Konstytucja-dla-biznesu-slabo-rozpowszechniona-wsrod-urzednikow.html

If the authority of first instance issues a decision determining the amount of tax liability and incorrectly states that the limitation period has not expired, it should take into account the need to pay interest on the overpayment – from the date of the overpayment, i.e. from the date of payment of such tax.

The Supreme Administrative Court today considered the case regarding interest rate on overpayment in real estate tax (file reference number II FSK 3975/17), in which Kamil Szczęsny, a specialist in the GWW real estate tax team, was an attorney. The Supreme Administrative Court agreed with arguments of the applicant company and its attorney to a large extent.

– The judgment is very favorable for taxpayers. When issuing a decision after the expiry of the limitation period, the tax authorities should carefully assess premises resulting in suspension or interruption of the limitation period, as in the event of later revocation of the decision and discontinuation of proceedings they will be required to pay interest on the overpayment from the date of the overpayment, i.e. from making payment of the tax resulting from the tax assessment decision – commented Kamil Szczęsny.

More on this subject can be found in an article on prawo.pl: https://www.prawo.pl/podatki/oprocentowanie-nadplaty-liczone-od-momentu-jej-powstania-wyrok,496360.html