Month: July 2021

The Supreme Administrative Court opens the door to reducing operating income by costs of interest on the loan-financed acquisition of shares in the company. The ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court confirmed that when costs are not related to a specific revenue, they should be allocated proportionally to revenues obtained from each of the sources.

This is an interesting solution for entities that have become shareholders in companies as a result of acquiring shares using funds from interest-bearing loans or credits, since the interest on this account may reduce their operating income.

More information on this issue is available in an alert to be downloaded below.

After nearly 5-year long proceedings, GWW Law Firm has led to a final and binding completion of the proceedings regarding the refusal to declare invalidity of a building permit for a hotel building together with a service and commercial part.

What was the precedent in the case?

The building permit was declared invalid and its execution was suspended at the final stage of construction of the hotel building and right before putting into use of the service and commercial part.

The main reason for declaring invalidity of the permit was a different interpretation of the provisions of the local spatial development plan. The investor found out about the suspension of construction works prior to the delivery of the notice on the initiation of the procedure for declaring the building permit invalid. As a result of the decision issued, construction works were suspended for many months.

Finally, in the judgment of 8 July 2021 (file reference: II OSK 3018/18), the Supreme Administrative Court confirmed the position presented by GWW throughout the proceedings that there can be no question of gross violation of the law in the case of applying one of possible variants of interpreting regulations, in this case a provision resulting from the local plan.

On the part of GWW, the case was handled by attorney Joanna Sebzda – Załuska, GWW partner, supervisor of the investment process practice, and attorney Dorota Chramęga.

We are happy to inform you about our another success in the prestigious Chambers High Net Worth 2021 ranking.

The private client advisory team of GWW won the 1st place (Band 1) for the fifth time in a row!

Aldona Leszczyńska Mikulska, team supervisor, was awarded the 1st place in the individual category (Band 1) each time since the first edition of the ranking (since 2017), whereas Tomasz Krzywański obtained the Star Associate title for the second year in a row.

Here are some recommendations we received from our clients and business partners:

"We refer work to each other. They are a very, very good team; they are one of the best in Poland," enthuses a source, adding: "They are one of the best in terms of technical knowledge and responsiveness. They are reasonable with fees and they have good clientele."

Aldona Leszczyńska-Mikulska is well known in the market for her experience advising wealthy individuals and families on cross-border matters. "She is a real specialist," says an interviewee, adding: "She has wide knowledge and has experience in inheritance law." One source notes: "She is very diligent, she is very pragmatic and focused." Another comments: "She is very good with clients and she has solid experience."

Tomasz Krzywański focuses his practice on advising domestic and international high net worth clients on trust and estate matters. A source remarks: "He is excellent. He has a totally perfect international overview dealing with all jurisdictions all around. I would absolutely recommend him."

Chambers and Partners British publishing house, which is famous of publishing annual lists of law firms and lawyers in the form of rankings, surveyed advisory markets for so-called High Net Worth Individuals in over 55 countries for the fifth time. On 22 July this year, another edition of the Chambers High Net Worth ranking was published, which distinguished the best specialists in the field of advisory services for wealthy individual clients. Chambers and Partners analysts create the ranking based on interviews with thousands of lawyers and their clients. Awarded companies and lawyers are included in 2 groups (Band 1 and Band 1 – a group of the best specialists).

Thank you for your recommendations and cooperation.

It is already available! A book publication analyzing issues of public procurement procedures for construction works in terms of the new Public Procurement Law.

The authors clarify the most complicated aspects of public procurement procedures for construction works, with particular emphasis on the newly introduced obligations of contracting authorities and contractors. The publication contains a presentation of recommended solutions, frequent errors and theses from the jurisprudence. We recommend it especially for contractors submitting offers in public procurement procedures, employees of public procurement departments preparing procedure documentations on a day-to-day basis, and professionals preparing terms of references and terms of contracts.

It has been developed by GWW Law Firm experts in public procurement law and infrastructural investments: Michał Sękowski, Paweł Rożyński, Marta Lipińska.

A fragment of the book can be downloaded here: file:///C:/Users/m.ostatek/Downloads/Zamowienia-publiczne-na-roboty-budowlane_fragmet.pdf

The book is available here: https://sklep.mustreadmedia.pl/produkt/zamowienia-publiczne-na-roboty-budowlane-wedlug-nowej-ustawy-pzp/

 

Fiscal authorities demanded a tax from an employee who was refunded by the employer for using a private car for business purposes. They saw taxable revenues. The administrative court shared the employee's viewpoint. In the latest judgment it concluded clearly – actions of the tax office had no legal basis in that case. There was no question of any revenues whatsoever.

COMMENTARY by Maciej Siejbik, a lawyer from the GWW tax advisory team

The judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Gdańsk is a good news for employees. In its justification, the Court also pointed out that the issues of qualifying reimbursement of expenses in the discussed situation are a source of doubts in the jurisprudence. – Currently, in the field of personal income tax, there are two lines of jurisprudence, expressing contradictory viewpoints with regard to the interpretation of regulations applicable to the taxation of funds obtained by employees as reimbursement of expenses incurred for using a private car as part of their official duties – says Maciej Siejbik.

The article with a commentary by Maciej Siejbik was published on the Prawo.pl portal: https://www.prawo.pl/podatki/korzystanie-z-prywatnych-samochodow-w-pracy-u-pracodawcy-a,509538.html

The case of swimmers who were supposed to represent Poland at the Olympics, but were not admitted to the competition, is a huge-scale scandal. Athletes are going to take severe legal action. What options do they have in this situation? Krzysztof Ways, lawyer from GWW criminal law practice, answers questions of the Wprost weekly.

The whole article is available to subscribers of Wprost at: https://sport.wprost.pl/tokio-2020/10472294/tokio-2020-sprawa-polskich-plywakow-boguslaw-lesnodorski-i-krzysztof-ways-komentuja.html

 

As previously reported, GWW Law Firm supported the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers in the preparation of comments to the March draft law on the family foundation. The Ministry of Labor and Technology Development decided to take into account the following:

• allowing the foundation to run a family business to a limited extent (the project will be supplemented with a catalogue of activities that will not be considered forbidden);
• removing the demand that at least 50% of the seats in the board of protectors should be occupied by people from outside the group of beneficiaries of the family foundation.

The following suggestions were directed for further discussion: 

• increasing the founder's freedom in shaping the corporate governance of a family foundation – through the possibility of differentiating the voting weight of individual members of its governing bodies;
• limiting the period in which the National Revenue Administration can request information from the family foundation about the beneficiaries and their profits to 5 years.

According to the Ministry's announcements, the new regulations are to enter into force on 1 January 2022. At the moment, the project is still in the phase of works at the Ministry.

Works on the above changes were performed by members of our Private Client team: Aldona Leszczyńska-Mikulska, attorney-at-law, Tomasz Krzywański, attorney-at-law and Jan Wnorowski, trainee attorney.

We have provided legal services to the shareholders of Baltic Wave Sp. z o.o. as part of the acquisition of shares in this company by MA Investment Sp. z o.o. As a result of the transaction, the FB ANTCZAK group has become the investor and general contractor of the investment carried out by the Baltic Wave company – a luxury 5-star Baltic Wave hotel, which is being constructed in Kołobrzeg under the prestigious Crowne Plaza brand, with 468 apartments and a unique Edge infinity pool and a spa & wellness zone. #BalticWave is a combination of an excellent location in the summer capital of Poland with modern architecture, wide infrastructure and the highest quality of workmanship. The project is implemented in the formula of hotel apartments with self-service rental. Legal counsel was in the capable hands of Jakub Obiegły and Marek Szymanek, partners of GWW.

 

We would like to thank our clients for their trust, and the other participants of the transaction, including Vacation Investments, act BSWW legal & tax, as well as FB ANTCZAK – for their constructive and professional approach, both in the course of negotiating the transaction terms and at the stage of its finalization.

 

For further information visit: https://www.nieruchomosci.biz/artykuly/szczegoly/68686_grupa-fb-antczak-inwestorem-i-generalnym-wykonawca-5-gwiazdkowego-hotelu-baltic-wave-w-kolobrzegu

 

Photo: https://hotelbalticwave.pl/

After the last major amendment to the Income Tax Act, transactions between unrelated entities are also to be reported. Changes in regulations now oblige companies to check the clients of their contractors. Tax advisors have appealed to the Ministry of Finance to change the regulations – so far to no avail, however, they hope the Ministry will ease its new obligations in autumn.

Read the commentary of our expert from the transfer pricing team, Radosław Chudy for Prawo.pl at:
https://www.prawo.pl/podatki/dokumentowanie-cen-transferowych-i-transakcji-z-rajami-przez,509392.html?utm_medium

Until recently, tax authorities presented a uniform position, denying taxpayers the right to deduct expenses for clothing, including such items as watches. Recognition of expenses on clothes (e.g. suits or ties) as tax deductible costs was possible only under condition of having permanent and visible marking of such items with company's trademarks. Recently, however, we may notice a change in the approach of tax authorities to the so-called private expenses, at least as regards certain types of watches. It is about, inter alia, the above-mentioned smartwatches – comments Aneta Skowron from the CIT tax advisory team.

A recent tax ruling confirms that lawyers are allowed to deduct an expensive chronograph watch from their revenues.

More information relating to this issue can be found in an article on Prawo.pl: https://www.prawo.pl/podatki/zegarek-z-chronografem-u-prawnika-adwokata-radcy-prawnego-jako,509277.html