Author: ts_pm

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

Another year in a row we are the winners of the Podkarpackie Voivodship Economic Award. We received the statuette in the best product category for JPK Insight, our application for substantive analysis of JPK_VAT files.

The Gala of the “Podkarpackie Voivodship Economic Award 2019” competition was held yesterday at the Exhibition and Congress Center of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship G2A Arena in Jasionka near Rzeszów.

The Podkarpackie Voivodship Economic Award competition is organized by the Business Promotion Center already for the 18^th time. This year's Gala was under the honorary patronage of the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland and the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology (currently the Ministry of Development). This year's edition of the competition gathered 155 companies that competed for distinctions in several categories. Micro, small, medium and large companies were evaluated. The jury also assessed their products and services. Full list of awards can be found at: https://png.pl/wreczono-statuetki-konkursu-podkarpacka-nagroda-gospodarcza-2019/   

Congratulations to the whole team involved in the project!

JPK Insight  can be tested for free by contacting us via the available form at: https://jpk-insight.pl/ 

Which contractual provisions will soon be prohibited and what elements will become mandatory for public procurement contracts concluded on the basis of the new Public Procurement Law?

On 1 January 2021, regulations of the Act of 11 September 2019 on Public Procurement Law will enter into force. This Act introduces several new legal solutions, unknown under the currently applicable Act of 29 January 2004, such as the requirement of cooperation between the contracting authority and the contractor throughout performance of the contract, the obligation to include specific provisions in the content of the contract or specification what elements the contract may not contain. In this paper, they will be discussed in the context of Article 433 and Article 436 of the new Public Procurement Law.

In the latest December issue of the Przetargi Publiczne monthly we will find an article by specialists from the public procurement and infrastructure investments team: Michal Sekowski, attorney-at-law, partner and Marta Lipińska, trainee attorney-at-law.

Link to the article: http://www.przetargipubliczne.pl/archiwum/art,8734,zasady-zawierania-umow-nowe-regulacje.html 

Companies and partnerships should prepare for changes resulting from the Act of 30 August 2019 amending the Act – the Code of Commercial Companies and Partnerships and some other acts. They provide for, inter alia, a mandatory website for some companies, as well as dematerialization of stocks. Financial penalties have been foreseen for not complying with the new requirements. The first changes will come into force on 1 January 2020.

The latest article by Marcin Borkowski, PhD, attorney-at-law, company law expert, is available on Lexplorers:
http://lexplorers.pl/wazne-zmiany-dla-spolek-akcyjnych-oraz-komandytowo-akcyjnych/

On 12 November (Thursday) the ZET Radio Andrzej Woyciechowski Awards ceremony was held.

The winners of the 15^th edition of the Radio ZET Award were Marek and Tomasz Sekielski for the documentary film "Tell No One" ("Tylko nie mów nikomu"). Honorary awards for their journalistic materials were received by Magdalena Gałczyńska and Grzegorz Rzeczkowski.

In 2019, on the 30^th anniversary of gaining freedom by Poland, the Special ZET Radio Andrzej Woyciechowski Award “Journalist of the Decade” was awarded to: Bianka Mikołajewska, Adam Pieczyński and Paweł Reszka. The Special Award was awarded by the Jury to journalists “who, by their activities in the years 2009-2019, became a symbol of independent and pressure-free journalism, showed outstanding professionalism and objectivity, adhered to professional ethics, and their materials enjoyed social recognition and made a significant contribution to perception of the reality that surrounds us”.

Traditionally, GWW Law Office was a legal partner of the Radio ZET Andrzej Woyciechowski Award.

More information available at: https://www.nagrodawoyciechowskiego.pl/

The process of registering an entity as a VAT payer may be the source of problems, especially in view of tax authorities’ reluctance to recognize the address of a virtual office as the address of the taxpayer's registered office. How far can the authority go in verifying data specified in the registration application? We will find information on the preventive refusal of registration and more in the article below.

The article by Angelika Dahms, a VAT specialist, appeared in today's issue of prawo.pl.

https://www.prawo.pl/podatki/rejestrowanie-adresu-siedziby-da-status-podatnika-vat-opinia,495959.html