From 2025, EU countries, including Poland, will be able to freely exempt from VAT the supply of food, water, medicines, medical equipment, books and magazines for the libraries, passenger transport as well as the supply and installation of solar panels.
Alternatively – if they so decide – they will be able to apply a preferential VAT rate lower than 5% to these supplies.
This is the result of the draft amendment to the VAT directive, on which a political compromise was reached in the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). The draft has yet to receive an opinion from the European Parliament and only then will it be finally approved by ECOFIN.
At the beginning of 2022, a reform of tax regulations entered into force in Poland, which, in particular, significantly increases the cost of employing a Polish employee. In practice, the new law is called the “Polish Deal” and it is precisely the Act of October 29, 2021 amending the Act on personal income tax, the Act on corporate income tax and some other acts (Polish Journal of Laws, item 2105 with subsequent amendments). The Polish Deal, in particular, increases the operating costs of foreign entrepreneurs employing Polish workers on a large scale under an employment contract under the Polish Labor Law. In such a case, the foreign entrepreneur must bear a much higher cost of maintaining a Polish employee compared to the situation that took place in 2021.
Reducing the Employee’s remuneration as a method of optimizing employment costs? Is it legal?
In practice, entrepreneurs try to use the right to amend an employment contract to unilaterally reduce the employee’s remuneration. This new change in law may result in the fact that from January 2022, employers will propose new, lower remuneration to their employees. The salary is reduced by the amount that is needed to bring the cost of maintaining the employee to the level before the tax reform introduced by the Polish Deal was in force. On the other hand, Polish authorities deny that changing the employment contract with regard to the reduction of remuneration is a legal method of circumventing the provisions of the Polish Deal.
What are tobacco products and what is e-cigarette?
In accordance with the Polish Act of 22 July 2016 amending the Act on the protection of health against the consequences of tobacco and tobacco products, electronical cigarette is a device that can be used to ingest nicotine-containing vapor via a mouthpiece, or all components of that device, including cartridges, tanks and devices without a cartridge or tank. Electronic cigarettes may be disposable or refillable with a refillable cartridge or tank or rechargeable with a disposable cartridge.
According to the same Act, tobacco product is a product intended for consumption by consumers, consisting even partly of tobacco, including genetically modified tobacco.
The registration of tobacco products
The submission of detailed information on tobacco products to the competent authorities of Member States is done electronically through a common EU-CEG platform administered by the European Commission. Transmission of this information through the EU-CEG, in the appropriate format (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/2186 of 25 November 2015) is equivalent to compliance with statutory obligations referred to in Article 8a of the Act on Health Protection against the Effects of Tobacco and Tobacco Products.
In recent years, Cracow has been very popular in terms of investment. It ranked third in the Business Environment Assessment Study (BEAS) 2021. Various factors were taken into account during the evaluation, such as educational potential, employment potential, location or business potential.
What the Business Environment Assessment Study (BEAS 2021) presents?
The Business Environment Assessment Study (BEAS 2021) is a research cycle conducted by Antal – company specialising in HR consultancy and Cushman & Wakefield – real estate experts. In 2021, the third edition of the cycle took place. As part of this cycle, a report entitled Investment potential of Cracow was prepared and presented on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. Thanks to the conducted research we can find out what are the current trends in economic development on the Polish market.
In the face of the pandemic and the economic crisis, the subject of investment has become much more complicated. According to experts, currently the key to investments will be the optimization of costs while increasing the efficiency of operations, also in the case of remote working.
What are the factors that influence investing in Cracow
The report lists the following factors for investment incentives: infrastructure, educational potential, employment potential, business potential, public administration support, office space, evaluation of the location as a place to live. It mentions also cost of living and the level of wages.
Of the above-mentioned factors, the following can boast a high rating:
Seed capital funds handle with financial support for enterprises at an early stage of development or newly created enterprises (start-ups). This is due to the fact that novice entrepreneurs, when starting their adventure with business, have limited resources to implement innovative ideas – one may even be tempted to say that the only capital is their project. The aforementioned funds not only make their resources available, but also offer substantive support, e.g. in the field of introducing the product to the market. In return, investors receive shares in this company, the purpose of which is to commercialize a new product or service.
How to get seed capital effectively?
Obtaining this type of financing is not an easy operation, as evidenced by strong statistics – on average 6 out of 10 entrepreneurs fail, despite the initial enthusiasm of investors and the vision of earning much more money. Putting aside such pessimistic statistics, a person looking for the attention of business people, should first have a solid and substantive business plan that will contain the most accurate descriptions of his vision, along with ideas for development after receiving funding. When this key condition is met, the stage of negotiations with potential investors takes place. They are aimed at defining the structure, financing conditions and its costs. The entirety of this long and complicated project ends with the signing of an investment agreement.
