The National Tax Administration, tasked with closing the tax gap in the state budget, was launched at the beginning of March. The new customs and tax administration has been given wide-ranging powers that are causing concern among businesses and economic experts.
The new customs and revenue service will be able to inspect entrepreneurs without notice, whether in a company or a private residence. The inspectors can demand the disclosure of all company documents, even those covered by trade secrets. Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, inaugurating the new service, made no secret of the fact that it is supposed to efficiently secure public finances. He likened KAS officers to a sabre to take back what foreign violence (i.e. economic criminals) has taken.
An effective rather than an efficient state?
Waldemar Pawlak, former Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, draws attention to one of the three main objectives that the Law and Justice government has included in the Strategy for Responsible Development, namely an 'efficient state'.
The former Prime Minister adds that he knows of a case where the office was so successful in controlling entrepreneurs that all business activity in his area froze, and finally the office itself was abolished.
Trouble with VAT refunds
Everything indicates that these fears are not unfounded. In early April bankruptcy petition filed by MGM SA, which has lost its financial liquidity despite the profits it has been consistently generating. Last year, the tax office blocked approximately PLN 24 million and withheld a VAT refund for an amount of approximately PLN 9 million. The court ruling that suspended the blockade of MGM funds did not help.
Lawyers from the law firm PMR Restructuring SA admits that situations often occur in which entrepreneurs lose financial liquidity as a result of tax authority inspections. In many cases, this threatens insolvency, and often even leads to it.
The initiation of audits against entrepreneurs to determine whether they have correctly accounted for VAT is often associated with the withholding of refunds of excess tax paid by the business owner. The businessman then remains in limbo until the proceedings are concluded, which affects the health of his business and its profitability in the following months.
18 April 2017:
" National Tax Administration can effectively paralyse any business
