In order to mitigate the negative economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic the Lowest chamber of Polish Parliament (the Sejm) passed a law on 25 February 2021 the law amending the Excise Tax Act and certain other legislation (Amending Law).
The Amending Law introduces a number of changes relating to the personal income tax (PIT) and the corporate income tax (CIT) in Poland, especially to some important deadlines. It extends among others the:
- filing date for TPR transfer pricing disclosures,
- filing date for the declaration that local file has been prepared,
- filing date for master file,
- annual CIT filing and payment date,
- recognition of certificates of residence.
Extension of deadlines for transfer pricing documentation
In accordance with the Amending Law, the deadlines for the filing of form TPR and local file declaration (for both CIT and PIT purposes) are moved:
- to 30 September 2021 where the original deadline would otherwise fall between 1 February 2021 and 30 June 2021;
- three months forward where the original deadline would otherwise fall between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2021.
Also, where the deadline for the filing of the local file declaration is extended, the time for submission of the master file will be extended until the end of the third month after the day following the date for submission of the local file declaration.
Other deadlines
The Amending Law extends the time for the filing of the annual CIT return and payment of the tax until 30 June 2021 for the tax year that ended between 1 December 2020 and 28 February 2021. There is a risk that the Amending Law will not be passed and signed by the President by the end of March 2021. Therefore, regardless of the above, the Ministry of Finance is working on a regulation changing the deadline for filing the annual CIT tax return.
It is good to know that there will be no changes to the filing dates for:
- form ORD-U (disclosure of contracts with non-residents), and
- form CBC-P (notice of duty to issue Country by Country Reporting for the Capital Group – CBC-R).
Accordingly, those dates fall on the last day of the third month after the end of the tax year (for ORD-U) or after the end of the reporting financial year of the group for which the notice is given (CBC-R).
Further changes for PIT and CIT in the Amending Law
According to the Amending Law, for the duration of the state of coronavirus-related epidemic emergency or epidemic and for two months thereafter, a withholding agent will be deemed to be in compliance with the requirement of obtaining the taxpayer’s certificate of residence also where the taxpayer’s certificate the agent has is for 2019 and 2020 and the taxpayer represents that the information therein continues to be up-to-date.
The rules on the bad debt relief have been changed in case of taxpayers affected by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, too. In the case of PIT, the entitlement to bad debt relief may be applied after 30 days from the expiry of the payment deadline specified in the invoice or in the contract, instead of 90. The change remains in force until the end of the calendar year in which the state of emergency is cancelled. In the case of CIT, the entitlement to bad debt relief may also be applied after 30 days from the expiry of the payment deadline. However, in the case of taxpayers whose tax year is different from the calendar year, the entitlement will apply to receivables covered until the end of that calendar year by the entitlement referred to in the CIT Act.
If you would like to know more about the Polish tax changes included in the Amending Law, please visit the homepage of WTS&SAJA Sp. z o.o., the exclusive representative of WTS Global for Poland.
