project | In Principle

On 5 March 2019, a legislative proposal was submitted to the Sejm to regulate business activity conducted from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Gibraltar following Brexit. Similar laws are now being drawn up in a number of other EU countries. The bill is intended to protect Polish customers who have agreements with institutions of that kind. It is also intended to enable the firms to bring their business activities and relationships with customers to a close in an orderly fashion, or take the appropriate measures to remain on the Polish market according to rules that apply to third countries.

In anticipation of the new Public Procurement Law, the market is wandering in an uncharted wilderness of digitalisation, stumbling time and again over the ill-considered consequences of rulings. Public procurement needs a signpost: permanent and specific rules in line with the regulations.

“GMO-free” offers a strong and appealing marketing message. The use of this claim is not regulated at the EU level. Individual member states, including Poland, are adopting national criteria that must be met by products for the manufacturer to call them GMO-free. What are these criteria, and what products do they apply to?

A bill currently being processed by the Sejm significantly limits the right of a management board member to resign from office at any time.

The Ministry of Energy has published a draft amendment to the regulation on tariffs reducing the burden of the qualitative fee on some “large” industrial customers.

The Public Procurement Law regulates the method of eliminating contractors who do not meet the requirements for such things as integrity (no criminal convictions). The sanction of exclusion from a tender may be imposed on a contractor not for acts committed by the entity, but for acts committed in relation to the activity of a collective entity by natural persons acting on its behalf or in its interest.

A lot has been published on the harmful effects on the construction industry of the legal solutions proposed in the draft Act on Prevention of Abuses in Road Projects. A disadvantage of the concept of protection of local subcontractors presented by the Ministry of Justice may be to severely limit the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways’ external financing of projects.

At the end of August 2018, the Ministry of Finance announced future significant changes in the most important tax acts. These changes are to enter into force at the beginning of 2019. We wrote about some of these here last week. Now we present further changes proposed by the Ministry of Finance, as published in the draft act of 24 August 2018 amending the Personal Income Tax Act, the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Tax Ordinance and other acts, which might be particularly important for taxpayers conducting business activity.

Major changes to the Road Transport Act are in the pipeline. The changes are intended to regulate the activities of firms that act as go-betweens in passenger services, for instance by providing mobile applications or computer software.

The Polish government is currently working on a completely new tax regime applicable to income from trading in cryptocurrencies (virtual currencies) for personal income tax and corporate income tax purposes. For PIT purposes, this income is to be taxed as income from cash capital at the rate of 19% regardless of whether the turnover is of a private nature or made in the course of business activity. For CIT purposes, the income from trading in cryptocurrencies will be classified as capital gains. These new rules would apply from 1 January 2019.

On 17 April 2018 the European Commission announced a proposed directive protecting whistleblowers. The aim is to establish minimum standards for protection of persons uncovering irregularities or violations of EU law, and to unify the law of the member states in this area.

Work has begun on the government’s side on a bill amending the Waste Act and certain other acts. The provisions are a reaction to disturbing reports of waste entering Poland illegally and landfill fires which are hazardous, reported by the media in recent weeks.