The Act provides for a system of incentives in Poland, including abolition of excise tax on electric cars and plug-in hybrids (PHEV), exemption from parking fees, larger depreciation write-offs for companies. It also includes building a base infrastructure network for alternative fuels in agglomerations, densely populated areas, and along trans-European road transport corridors, which will allow free movement of vehicles powered by these fuels. It is planned that by the end of 2020, there will be created 6,000 electricity charging points with normal power and 400 high power charging points as well as 70 CNG refuelling points in Poland.
The Act is intended to improve Poland’s energy security, while the choice of electromobility is a strategic choice that will reduce dependence on oil imports.
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Currently, work is underway to adapt Polish law to the General Data Protection Regulation. Regardless of the progress of the work of the Polish legislator, the regulation in the Member States will take effect from May 25, 2018.
The new regulation applies to every entity that processes personal data of individuals in the European Union. The regulation therefore applies to any enterprise that employs or offers products or services to EU citizens. GDPR imposes a whole series of new obligations on companies and institutions and strengthens those already in force. The most important of them include: the requirement to properly secure stored personal data, changes in the information policy or new users’ rights.
Due to the specificity of this Act, it will mainly cover two areas of the company’s work: human resources, as well as sales and marketing. The new regulation will be an important step towards strengthening citizens’ rights in the digital era and simplifying business activities by harmonizing rules for market administrators in all EU member states.
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Laboratory research in science and medical setting.
The new regulations which have become effective since January 1st, 2018, introduced the tax relief in Poland for companies operating in research and development (R&D) sector (an increase from the current level of 50% up to 100 percent tax relief), and in the case of research and development centres up to 150 percent of tax relief. The new act introduces a uniform deduction system in Poland for all companies regardless of the size of the enterprise or the type of these costs.
The changes also apply to universities that will be able to set up companies to manage research infrastructure. The so-called infrastructural companies have to build and share research infrastructure in a more efficient and easier way for the entrepreneurs. It also affects the need to commercialize research on the part of scientific and research institutions. This, in turn, is intended to enable entrepreneurs to use the material and human resources of higher education institutions.
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The Ministry of Development is finalizing the work on the Act on the principles of supporting new investments in Poland, which is said to replace the Act on Special Economic Zones. The new law will come into force beginning of February 2018.
The new investment rules are to be important mainly for small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland as well as for foreign entrepreneurs operating in Poland. The change is to be primarily the territorial scope of investments, which have been supported by the Polish government so far and the factors influencing the decision to start a given investment are to be redefined.
The Ministry of Development also intends to extend investment incentives across the entire country, which until now were only valid in special economic zones. Tax reliefs would depend on the location and the nature of the investment in Poland, as well as on the quality of newly created jobs.
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From January 1st, 2018, the obligation to keep an electronic tax register was imposed on the remaining group of VAT taxpayers who keep their records using software programming.
Thus, every active VAT payer is obliged to keep an electronic register in the form of VAT records on sales and purchases and send it in the form of a Standard Audit File-Tax to controlling authorities (in this case, the Minister of Finance who will forward the data to the appropriate tax offices). This obligation also applies to micro-entrepreneurs running a sole proprietorship in Poland.
Moreover, starting from July 1st, 2018, each of the active VAT taxpayers will have to have, in the event of tax control, the other records in the SAF-T format listed in the Act, such as records of the book of revenues and expenses, records of revenues, sales invoices, warehouse and bank statements.
A failure to comply with the above duty may result in a financial fine being imposed on the entrepreneurs.
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