KPMG Weekly Tax Review 02 JUN - 09 JUN 2025

On 6 June 2025, the preliminary remarks to the bill amending the Act on the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity and the Business Information Desk, and the VAT Act were added to the list of legislative work and policies of the Council of Ministers. The bill provides for enabling search of the data entered in the VAT payer register by means of the existing company and partnership search engine available on the business.gov.pl portal, as well as cooperation and exchange of information between the National Court Register (KRS), Central Register and Information on Economic Activity (CEIDG) and National Revenue Administration (KAS) (enabled by the Ministry of Finance) systems with regard to the information contained in the list of VAT payers. The bill is anticipated to be approved by the Council of Ministers in the second quarter of 2025.

Projekt ustawy o zmianie ustawy o Centralnej Ewidencji i Informacji o Działalności Gospodarczej i Punkcie Informacji dla Przedsiębiorcy oraz ustawy o podatku od towarów i usług

On 4 June 2025, the Ministry of Finance announced that the Polish Agency for Audit Oversight (UKNF) provided several proposals to simplify the regulations on financial service sector in the EU Single Market. The proposals result from cooperation between the team on simplifying the regulations on financial service sector established by the UKNF and the Ministry of Finance. The UKNF’s proposals reflect the initiative of the Ministry and the efforts of Polish institutions to harmonize and simplify regulations at the EU level. Among the goals of the solutions developed are to reduce the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises (not only in terms of reporting, but also in terms of organizational requirements) and to simplify ESG reporting (to offset the excessive costs thereof, currently imposed on EU operators).

Propozycje_UKNF_dot_uproszczen_93911.pdf

During the meeting of the Monetary Policy Council held on 3-4 June 2025, it was decided to keep the NBP interest rates unchanged, namely:

1. reference rate at 5.25% annually;
2. Lombard loan interest rate at 5.75% annually;
3. deposit rate at 4.75% annually;
4. rediscount rate at 5.30% annually;
5. discount rate on bills of exchange at 5.35% annually.

Interest rates affect, among other things, the amount of interest on tax arrears, as well as the limit of notional costs of external financing, and a reduction in the amount of tax liability in the event of payment of VAT in full from a VAT account earlier than the deadline for paying the tax. As a result, interest on tax arrears continues to amount to 13.5% on an annual basis.

Komunikat prasowy z posiedzenia Rady Polityki Pieniężnej w dniach 3-4 czerwca 2025 r. | Narodowy Bank Polski - Internetowy Serwis Informacyjny

On 29 May 2025, the Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw referred three questions on the Polish tax on unrealized gains (exit tax) for a preliminary ruling by the CJEU. The questions concern, among other things, whether it is possible to demand the payment of exit tax (or possibly request its payment in instalments) at the moment of changing tax residence to a foreign one, rather than at the moment of selling one's assets by an individual changing tax residence. Additionally, they concern the possibility of demanding the payment of exit tax based on the notional value of such an individual's assets (considering the increase in the value of an asset that occurred during the period when the person was not a resident of the given Member State).

On 2 June 2025, a bill amending the Polish Code of Commercial Partnerships and Companies and certain other acts was added the list of legislative work and policies of the Council of Ministers. The bill provides for amendments to the Code's provisions (including, inter alia, the removal of the exclusion of the possibility of judicial exemption from the prohibition of holding a position in a company in cases of intentional crimes, and the repeal of penalization for failing to file for company bankruptcy), amendments to the Act on the Liability of Collective Entities for Acts Prohibited Under Penalty (including the possibility of imposing compensatory measures on a collective entity), and amendments to the Act on Counteracting Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (including the repeal of criminal liability for the person designated to report so-called suspicious transactions to the General Inspector of Financial Information).

Projekt ustawy o zmianie ustawy - Kodeks spółek handlowych oraz niektórych innych ustaw - Kancelaria Prezesa Rady Ministrów - Portal Gov.pl

On 30 May 2025, another package of documents relating to the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF), covering, among others, the bill amending the regulation on using the KSeF (technical aspects), along with explanatory notes thereto, and the draft regulation specifying the cases in which there is no obligation to issue structured invoices and situations in which their voluntary issuance is possible, regulatory impact assessment (RIA), and report from public consultations, was published on the Government Legislation Centre’s website. The latest regulations include, among other things: no changes to the original implementation schedule of KSeF, an increase in the VAT exemption threshold to PLN 240,000, the indefinite introduction of the "offline24" mode, and the expansion of the list of entities to whom invoices can be sent outside of KSeF to include individuals not conducting business activities and entities without identification numbers. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance announced an update to the SSL certificate for the test environment of the JPK (SAF-T) service, which has been in effect since 2 June 2025.

Pakiet dokumentów dotyczących KSeF

On 5 June 2025, the Ministry of Finance summarized the PIT settlements for 2024. The data provided indicates that nearly 2 million taxpayers (7.97%) passed the 32% PIT threshold, which is 700,000 more people than last year.

Additionally, record refunds of overpaid PIT were noted, amounting to PLN 22 billion (typically refunded within 14 days). It's also worth mentioning that 5 million taxpayers filed jointly with their spouse, and 8.7 million people benefited from one of the forms of the so-called zero-rate PIT (i.e., the relief for taxpayers of up to 26 years of age, the relief for families with 4+ children, as well as the relief for working seniors, and individuals returning to Poland). Furthermore, the data shows that in 2024, as many as 23.6 million people submitted their PIT electronically, with 14.3 million using the "Your e-PIT" service (for comparison, in 2023, 200,000 fewer taxpayers filed electronically).

Rozliczenie PIT za 2024 rok – proste, szybkie rozliczenie podatku i rekordowa liczba e-PIT-ów

On 5 June 2025, Resolution No. 3/2025 of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Council, dated 29 May 2025, was published regarding the request from the Head of the National Revenue Administration for an opinion on the applicability of the GAAR clause to a certain PIT tax liability for 2023.

The Council evaluated a sequence of activities including: the establishment of a family foundation by the taxpayer, the contribution of shares to the foundation, and the sale of shares by the foundation to a foreign investor. The Council determined that the taxpayer obtained a tax benefit, notably the absence of tax liability in PIT and CIT, which is – to a certain extent - contrary to the intent and purpose of the tax law provision (to the extent that the funds from the sale of contributed shares were distributed to beneficiaries without undertaking investment activities). Additionally, the Council concluded that the transaction was primarily conducted to achieve a tax benefit, and the taxpayer's approach was deemed artificial.

Consequently, the Council assessed that, regarding part of the amounts paid to the taxpayer by the foundation, the presented sequence of actions meets the statutory criteria for tax avoidance.

According to the judgment of the CJEU in case C‑685/23 dated 5 June 2025, the EU law must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which provides for the imposition of stamp duty on guarantees (provided, e.g., in the form of pledges of shares, bank account balances or receivables resulting from shareholder loans) for the purposes of the proper fulfilment of the obligations arising from a debenture loan issued by a company. At the same time, the CJEU noted that such stamp duties may be imposed only when such guarantees constitute other charges on land or other property within the meaning of EU law, in that they enable the holder of a receivable to obtain preferential or priority payment of that receivable in the event that the debtor does not honour its obligations.

CURIA - search results

According to the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court dated 30 May 2025 (case file II FSK 1489/24), pursuant to Article 22(4)(4) of the CIT Act, a premise for excluding WHT exemption can only be when the dividend recipient is exempt from income tax on their worldwide income, regardless of the place it was earned. According to the Court, the regulation in question pertains to a subject-related exemption, i.e., exemption covering all kinds of income, regardless of its source. Thus, it cannot be assumed that the aforementioned provision covers the exemption also in the case where dividend recipients enjoy an object-related exemption, such as including an exemption from taxation of dividend income. 

In its judgment of 30 May 2025 (case no. I SA/Kr 200/25), the Voivodship Administrative Court in Krakow held that the provisions of Article 21(1)(157) of the PIT Act, which concern exemptions from income related to the dissolution of a family foundation, cannot be applied to payments from a trust agreement.

 The Court assessed that a trust is an institution not recognized by Polish law, and despite the existing similarities between a trust and a family foundation, the provisions of the PIT Act cannot be applied.