A family foundation is a legal structure that builds an organizational structure aimed at securing family assets. It acts as a kind of treasure trove for the founder, protecting his family and business from accidents. Such foundations are popular in other countries such as Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany and Switzerland. A family foundation operates on the basis of a statute (and any regulations), with the founder having a great deal of freedom in determining the principles of its operation. Thanks to the flexibility in shaping the foundation structure and favorable taxation rules (the effective rate is about 13%), it is a tool ideally suited to the expectations of entrepreneurs who have long advocated for the introduction of such a solution in the Polish legal system. The interested party (the founder) is able to draw up a will as well as to establish a family foundation during their lifetime, which will manage their assets.
The name “yellow trade unions” itself may have at least two sources. According to one, it refers to the “yellow dog clauses”, which in the past referred to provisions of employment contracts prohibiting joining trade unions. Another possible etymology was the workers’ organizations operating in France at the beginning of the 20th century, which, in order to distinguish themselves from the communist “red” organizations, called themselves “yellow”.
One of the most frequently raised topics in public debate is the problem of the minimum wage. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the issue concerns all employees and employers. The minimum wage is the legally established lowest permissible level of monetary remuneration for hired work.
The legal definition of an enterprise was introduced on the basis of the Act of 23 April 1964 – Civil Code. According to art. 55 (1), an enterprise is an organized set of intangible and tangible assets intended for conducting business activity. It includes in particular: a designation individualizing the enterprise or its separate parts (name of the enterprise); ownership of real estate or movables, including equipment, materials, goods and products, and other property rights to real estate or movables and others listed in the indicated article. In turn, art. 55 (2) indicates what should be understood by the concept of “legal act involving an enterprise”. According to this regulation: a legal act involving an enterprise includes everything that is part of the enterprise, unless otherwise results from the content of the legal act or from special provisions. As indicated in the literature on the subject: An enterprise as an organizationally connected complex of intangible and tangible assets may be the subject of one legal act (uno actu). The unity of the enterprise is thus presumed, which gives rise to specific rights to the enterprise and all components that were part of the specific enterprise. Additionally, the literature indicates the problem of whether it is permissible for the parties to shape the legal relationship in a different way than through one legal act concerning the enterprise as a whole (in the form of performing several legal acts, which could affect tax optimization). The following position should be indicated here:
The sale of individual components of the enterprise, even if they are of significant value in comparison to the value of the entire enterprise, does not constitute a basis for recognizing that its sale actually took place. The enterprise as the subject of the sale must constitute a whole in organizational and functional terms.
The Polish Accounting Act does not define the concept of liabilities, however the balance sheet layouts indicated in Annexes 1-6 to the Accounting Act allow us to state that liabilities are sources of financing assets. Liabilities indicate where the funds from which the assets were acquired or created came from. The main groups of sources from which the financial resources from which the assets shown in the balance sheet were obtained are: 1) equity of the entity preparing the balance sheet, 2) liabilities and 3) accrued expenses. Such an understanding of liabilities leads to the conclusion that the sum of assets and the sum of liabilities shown in the balance sheet must be equal. This view was presented by the Judgment of the Polish Regional Administrative Court in Warsaw of 17 October 2017, III SA/Wa 2678/16, LEX no. 2760834.
