Changes in the general anti-avoidance clause – return to the past

In the January issue of Przegląd Podatkowy, Andrzej Ladziński critically analyzes the changes introduced to the general anti-avoidance clause.

(…) the current wording of the general clause corresponds to the requirements of the ATA Directive. It seems that the new regulations are the result of partially incorrect understanding of provisions of the Directive, but also misinterpretation of the meaning of the previously existing provisions, especially misunderstanding of the legal nature of the general anti-avoidance clause. In addition, an important factor influencing the scope of introduced changes was, as it seems, striving for a significant reduction, and perhaps even elimination of the possibility of tax optimization. The Minister of Finance in the fight against the so-called tax optimization has gone so far as to qualify taxpayers’ activities, which, in fact, have nothing to do with aggressive tax optimization, in this category. As a result of these changes, we found ourselves in a situation where the general anti-avoidance clause seems to express the principle that taxpayers should act in such a way so that their material and economic goals would be burdened with the highest possible tax.

Article can be downloaded from: https://gww.pl/pl/publikacje/zmiany-w-ogolnej-klauzuli-przeciwko-unikaniu-opoda/