The new tax ordinance

The government has introduced a draft of the new tax ordinance to replace the currently in force tax ordinance of 1997, which has gone out of date. The act will only regulate the general part of tax law, as the tax ordinance of 1997 does. The draft is currently subject to public consultation.

The government’s intention behind the draft is to introduce new institutions into general tax law, among others:

• an open catalogue of rights and obligations of a taxpayer
• mediation
• tax agreement between a taxpayer and the tax authority
• simplified proceedings concerning low amounts of underpaid tax
• suspension of the proceedings due to the pending precedent case
• prohibition against deteriorating a taxpayer’s situation by the first instance tax authority after its initial tax decision has been set aside
• consultation procedure,

as well as official general information on significant changes in tax law.

The draft tax ordinance also proposes modifications to institutions which have been in force up until now. The most important modifications relate to:

• extending the facility of paying tax for another taxpayer
• changing the limitation periods to adjust a taxpayer’s tax and the period to collect the adjusted tax
• overpayments
• tax returns
• administrative fine
• an official interpretation of tax law.

Another interesting modification provides a taxpayer with the right to refrain from appealing against a decision of the tax authority to the tax authority of the second instance and instead bringing the challenge directly before the administrative court.

Our recommendation

The tax ordinance draft is still very much in the early stages of the legislation process, thus there will be no immediate effect on taxpayers in Poland. Nevertheless when it comes into force it will change the relationships between taxpayers and tax authorities.