A new law affecting MDR reporting in Poland is expected to come into force in a few weeks. According to the Cabinet’s proposal, all cross-border tax schemes that have already been reported, or will be reported by 31 March 2020, will have to be refiled with the National Revenue Administration.
MDR reporting in Poland will change from 1 April
On 5 February the Polish Cabinet presented a legislative proposal to the Parliament to amend various statutes, including the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Goods and Services Tax Act, and the Exchange of Tax Information (Other Countries) Act. Among other things, the proposal includes changes to MDR reporting in Poland. The reason for the change is that Polish and EU Mandatory Disclosure Rules (MDR) are not consistent with each other. The new law is to enter into force on 1 April 2020.
Details of the changes
As of 1 April 2020, the NSP numbers (tax scheme numbers) assigned to cross-border schemes will become invalid by law and any such schemes from between 25 June 2018 and 31 March 2020 will have to be reported again.
Compared to the current law regulating MDR reporting in Poland, the retrospective reporting obligation will be extended to helpers (service providers), while now it is incumbent only on beneficiaries (users) and promoters. Cross-border schemes will have to be refiled with the Head of National Revenue Administration (authority):
- by 31 May 2020, if reported by the promoter,
- by 30 July 2020, if reported by the beneficiary,
- by 31 August 2020, if reported by the helper.
Where the reporting obligation is incumbent on more than one entity, the scheme should be refiled by the same entity that originally reported it before the new regulations took effect.
Other key elements of the proposal
Also, any special powers of attorney submitted to the authority will, unless revoked by 31 March 2020, become special powers of attorney enabling the authority to act in all MDR matters. Accordingly, it is advisable to verify your MDR power of attorneys to ensure their scope is as intended by you, as the principal.
In addition, the new law would extend the list of countries and territories considered tax havens. Payments to related entities in tax havens must always be reported to the authority as tax schemes. According to the proposed law on MDR reporting in Poland, not only the Polish list of tax havens will have to be taken into account, but also the EU list of uncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
