The new provisions introduced in the Polish tax on goods and services act (Polish VAT Act) are aimed at implementing Council Directive (EU) 2020/284 of February 18, 2020, amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards the introduction of certain requirements for payment service providers and serve to strengthen administrative cooperation to combat VAT frauds.
It is assumed that the insight and ability of tax administrations to use payment data will help seal VAT collection and improve the situation of honest taxpayers, which should have an impact on the market.
The new provisions introduce obligations for payment service providers (domestic banks, branches of foreign banks, credit institutions and payment institutions) to keep records of payment recipients and cross-border payments for each quarter. The obligation applies to providers that make more than 25 cross-border payments to the same payee during a quarter.
A payment is considered a cross-border payment when the payer is located in the territory of one EU Member State and the payee is located in the territory of another EU Member State or in the territory of a third country.
The records are electronic and will include details such as the provider's BIC code or other identifier, the payee's details, the tax payee's identification number, the payee's IBAN or other identifier, the payee's address, as well as details of cross-border payments and payment refunds. Payment service providers will also be required to keep records in electronic form for a period of three years after the end of the fiscal year, in which the payment was made.
The new provisions also require the records to be made available in an electronic form, in .xml format, to the Polish Head of the National Tax Administration by the end of the month following the end of the quarter to which the information relates.
The data collected in this way will be sent electronically to CESOP (electronic payment information system, managed at the European Union level by the European Commission).
If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of these topics and what they mean for you and your business, please get in touch with our Consumer sector and Tax experts.
