KPMG Weekly Tax Review 27 MAY - 03 JUN 2024

On 28 May 2024, the bill amending certain acts related to granting de minimis aid was published on the Government Legislation Centre’s website.

The bill provides for amending specified acts to adjust their provisions to changes brought by Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2831 and Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2832 entered into effect on 1 January 2024.

On 24 May 2024, the Ministry of Finance announced the launch of tax consultation on changes to the templates of the tax refund application forms (WH-WCP, WH-WPP, WH-WCZ and WH-WPZ).

In the current update cycle, the Ministry plans to introduce further modifications facilitating the use of the forms, including some technical changes, consisting in, inter alia, improving the quality of translation and standardizing field names.

The consultations are open to all interested entities. Opinions, in an editable form, can be submitted to: WHT-Konsultacje@mf.gov.pl - within 7 working days from the date of publishing the announcement, i.e., by 5 June 2024. 

According to the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court dated 28 May 2024 (case file II FSK 1050/21), services consisting in providing access to network, establishing procedures, tools and instructions, hosting of website and intranet are not subject to the restrictions of Article 15e(1) of the CIT Act. The above-enumerated services are purely technical, being typical contracts that nowadays are usually of mass character. Such services are now provided by specialized companies, which render them instead of employees, in this case - the company. Consequently, it is impossible to identify, from the company's point of view, any elements of consulting or management services, referred to in Article 15e(1) of the CIT Act.

According to the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court dated 21 May 2024 (case file II FSK 981/21), a company can deduct eligible costs, provided they have not previously been deducted in any form and they have not been deducted from the taxable base for income tax purposes. The company will also have the right to deduct the eligible costs specified in Article 18d(2)(1-4a) of the CIT Act and depreciation write-downs, but only in line with Article 18d(3) thereof related to fixed assets, provided that such costs have been/will be incurred in relation to the R&D activities actually performed. 

According to the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union dated 30 May 2024 delivered in case C‑743/22 (DISA Suministros y Trading SLU - DISA), Council Directive 2003/96/EC of 27 October 2003 restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity, as amended by Council Directive 2004/74/EC of 29 April 2004, and by Council Directive 2004/75/EC of 29 April 2004, in particular Article 5 thereof, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which authorizes regions or autonomous communities to set different rates of excise duty for the same product and the same use depending on the territory in which the product is consumed other than in the cases provided for that purpose.

According to the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union dated 30 May 2024, delivered in case C‑627/22 (AB), Articles 7 and 15 of the Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Swiss Confederation, of the other, on the free movement of persons, signed in Luxembourg on 21 June 1999 must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State that reserves to taxpayers who are nationals of that Member State, of another Member State or of a State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area of 2 May 1992 and who reside in the territory of one of those States the right to opt for a voluntary assessment procedure in respect of income from employment in order to have expenses such as occupational expenses taken into account and to have the wage tax that has been withheld in the withholding tax procedure offset, which may lead to an income tax refund, and that does not confer such a right of option on, inter alia, a national of the first Member State who resides in Switzerland and who receives income from employment in that Member State.

On 16 May 2024, two individual rulings (ref. no. 0111-KDIB2-2.4015.42.2024.3.MM and 0111-KDIB2-2.4015.43.2024.3.MM) were issued by the Head of the National Revenue Information Service. The opinion on taxation of donations to online content creators presented therein differs from the previously expressed ones. Up to now, tax authorities treated such donations as regular donations, but the Head of the National Revenue Information Service stated that since the contributors cannot be identified and thus the amount of support from individuals cannot be determined, such contributions cannot be qualified as regular donations. This means that since an anonymous contribution is not a donation, in principle, it should be treated as revenue from other sources and, once the income is calculated, taxed with PIT.

More information on this subject can be found on KPMG’s blog.