Month: January 2021

We have prepared a short alert presenting solutions included in the amendment to the COVID-19 Act, which are crucial for businesses.

We encourage you to read it and contact our advisors, if you have any questions or doubts.

Road maintenance contracts are not always complex services and are not always taxed at the 23% rate.

A typical winter picture: a plow removing snow off the road. Usually at the request of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) or a local government. It may turn out, however, that two similar plows removing a layer of snow of similar thickness on two similar roads may be taxed differently: at 8 or 23% VAT.

COMMENTARY by Małgorzata Militz, VAT expert, in an article in Rzeczpospolita.

Road maintenance companies have had problems with charging VAT on such services for a couple of years.

– When contracts concluded with GDDKiA or local governments did not relate to the provision of the "keep the road standard" services, different VAT rates were applied to particular types of services. Tax and audit authorities were of a different opinion and classified these services as comprehensive ones, thus requiring 23% rate taxation – says the expert. She adds that in practice, these contracts and the nature of services were not analyzed. After all, this is a very diverse matter. In these circumstances, the published explanations are very valuable – comments Małgorzata Militz.

What VAT rate applies to a road maintenance contract – VAT – rp.pl

 

According to the government's draft amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AML), the status of an obliged entity will also be assigned to persons trading in works of art and intermediaries in such trading. Aldona Leszczyńska-Mikulska, supervisor of the GWW advisory practice for individual clients, writes about the reasons for this amendment and about connections between the world of art and money laundering.

The article was published on the Lexplorers legal portal: Fine arts and dirty money – art galleries will verify their clients (lexplorers.pl)

A first GWW webinar with the participation of the Landscape Architecture Association is now over. The training was held by: Joanna Sebzda-Załuska and dr inż. arch. Magdalena Zienowicz, Ph. D. in Architecture Engineering. We would like to thank you for the time spent together and during which we had the chance to exchange valuable experiences and knowledge.

Another meeting in cooperation with the Landscape Architecture Association will take place in March, we will soon publish the training date. You are welcome to participate.

Companies applying for financial support under the PFR 2.0 Financial Shield for micro-companies and SMEs have doubts relating to the definition of "Fixed costs" referred to in the regulations, the amount of which is used to determine the value of the Financial Subsidy applicable to them. The Polish Development Fund (PFR) published explanations concerning the calculation of "Fixed costs" as well as the rules of spending the Financial Subsidy obtained.

"Fixed costs" within the meaning of the program are calculated as the result of determining the actual gross loss incurred in November and December 2020 and the forecast gross loss in Q1 2021. The result obtained should be adjusted by the costs of updating the value of assets (incurred and forecasted) and expected public aid that the applicant will receive in the first quarter of 2021. In this calculation, the Applicant qualifying as an SME should only include data for the months covered by the Program, i.e. XI-XII 2020 and I-III 2021. The Applicant qualifying as an SME should reduce the gross loss by all:

• public aid, which it received for eligible expenditure, the incurring of which falls in the period from 1 November 2020 to 31 December 2020 or from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021 (eligible period) – if it has not yet been included in accounting records;
• operational public aid received, which was not used by the Applicant by the time of applying for the Financial Subsidy under the Program, and
• public aid expected by the Applicant, which would cover the gross loss in the eligible period.

The calculation of "Fixed Costs" should not take into account the financial Subsidy received by the Applicant from the PFR as part of the Financial Shield 1.0 Program for MSME.

Detailed information is available at: https://pfrsa.pl/aktualnosci/tarcza-finansowa-pfr-2.0/wyjasnienie-dotyczace-definicji-kosztow-stalych-oraz-zasad-wydatkowania-uzyskanej-subwencji-finansowej.html

Photo: PFR S.A.

A person convicted of, inter alia, counterfeiting documents, theft or economic offences, may not be appointed to the management board of a company. This results from Article 18 (2) of the Code of Commercial Companies and Partnerships (KSH). What is the scope of application of this ban?

This issue is discussed by Marcin Borkowski, Ph.D., in today's issue of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The Companies' Law specifies the amount of PLN 15,000, which is a sort of a limit for cash payments. Payments in amounts exceeding this limit should, in principle, not be made in cash. Cash payments may also have a negative impact on tax settlements, explains Zdzisław Modzelewski from GWW.

The article by Zdzisław Modzelewski was published today on Prawo.pl: https://www.prawo.pl/podatki/limity-platnosci-gotowkowych-a-podatki,506017.html

Wanting to avoid penalties, companies send lots of requests for interpretations regarding GTU (groups of goods and services) codes to the tax authorities.They need to know not only tax regulations.

COMMENTARY by Zdzisław Modzelewski, VAT expert, GWW partner

Application of GTU codes is irrelevant for correct VAT settlements. Furthermore, requiring companies to provide such information under the regulation exceeds its statutory delegation, which raises serious doubts as to whether it is consistent with the constitution. The VAT Directive does not require such codes either. Businesses should be reassured that they should not be penalized for failure to assign or incorrect assigning of the GTU code to a given sale transaction. The penalty, already known colloquially as the "500- program", can only be imposed for an error that prevents verification of the transaction correctness. Having said so, the lack of or incorrect GTU designation cannot be considered as such an error and apart from that, the tax office cannot identify such irregularities on the basis of JPK_VAT records, when GTU codes are disclosed by one party only – the seller. I also do not see any grounds for imposing penalties under the Fiscal Penal Code on a taxpayer being a natural person.

The article, together with a commentary by Zdzisław Modzelewski, was published in today's issue of Rzeczpospolita.

https://www.rp.pl/VAT/301229970-Firmy-maja-problem-jak-wypelnic-JPK.html 

Until 17 February, micro, small and medium-sized companies can apply for funding from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development as part of the "Research for the market" competition.

We have prepared some of the most important information for you: http://newsletter.gww.pl/alert/Badania-na-rynek-PARP.pdf 

Information about changes in income taxes entering into force from 2021 can cause headache. We would like to remind to those of you who gain revenues from real estate rental that from 1 January, the option of taxing revenues from rental with a lump-sum tax (scale of 8.5%, 12.5% ​​from the excess revenues over PLN 100,000) may also be applied by natural persons, regardless of whether the rental will be carried out as part of private or business activity. In the legal situation existing until the end of December 2020, taxpayers wishing to rent apartments within the framework of the so-called "private rental" were able to choose the form of the lump-sum taxation, as long as the rental was not part of their business activity.

The lessor is not obliged to report the choice of the form of taxation in question. The decision on the choice of the taxation method (flat-rate tax, general principles of PIT taxation or lump sum) should be made before the deadline for payment of the PIT advance on rental revenues/income.