In view of the information and earlier announcements about the increased intensity of tax controls directly concerning transfer prices, we decided to check how the intentions adopted by the MF actually went. It must be admitted that the amounts of income estimated by tax authorities are increasing.
We have requested the Minister of Finance to provide public information on transfer pricing control activities carried out by the national tax administration during the period 2017
We've been informed that 2017 initiated 287 control procedures in which transfer pricing has been examined. In this, 239 the control procedures have been completed by the decision of the authority of the first instance.
Of the completed audit procedures in 180 the cases by decision of the tax authority of the first instance have been estimated or amended. According to the information received, the total value of the estimate/change of the tax resulting from the above activities carried out in 2017 Total amount 2,333,935,938.34 PLN.
This is undoubtedly a significantly higher value than indicated for the previous period – it is worth recalling that the corresponding value of the estimate for the previous period indicated by MF (year 2016) was ok. 650,000,000 PLN.
These values relate to the findings of tax authorities at stage I of the tax procedure, and so many of these decisions may not yet be final, so we asked questions about the proceedings at stage II of the instance. According to the response received in 2017 completed 115 proceedings by decision of the authority of the second instance.
With regard to the question of the database and analytical tools used by the employees of the tax administration, we have been informed that at present the KAS authorities do not use tools and databases dedicated exclusively to transfer pricing, while the employees of the IRS have access to databases such as RoyaltyStat, InfoCredit (including Quick Analytics) and Orbis, and through MF they can use databases provided by Bloomberg.
Information on the number of employees involved in the transfer pricing issue is also interesting – according to the response of the MF to the present day is employed 232 substantive staff/inspectors whose main area of specialisation is the transfer pricing area.
We assume that this data is up to date on the day of obtaining the information, i.e. 6 March 2018
Author:
Leszek Dutkiewicz
Partner at Russell Bedford. From 2011 related to Russell Bedford Poland.
In years 2008 – 2011 worked for leading consulting companies (Ernst&Young, KPMG, BDO) providing tax advisory services. He specializes in tax and economic law, primarily in international tax law, tax proceedings, VAT and transaction prices.
Author of a publication on tax, civil and international law issues. Lecturer in tax law training.
He has legal education, in 2008 graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University.