Experts have adopted crisis shield solutions with moderate enthusiasm. There was a lot of doubt about the exemption from paid ZUS contributions and the micro-loan from the Labour Fund. The accountants and tax advisers point to a considerable amount of misinformation or even lack of information explaining these issues.
Partial exemption from contributions to be granted from the march to entrepreneurs, in full for 3 months – March, April 1 May. Partially and without justification of the decision, which was only sent by e-mail, so in many cases omitted, which entails a risk of charging interest for an unpaid commitment. Long waiting time for a decision on a micro loan, selective granting and difficult contact with the Labour Office – is a crisis shield with the eyes of the entrepreneur. How do experts see her?
The most widely used tax facilitations special legislation
According to the Coronavirus report and the accounting and tax industry, prepared by Wolters Kluwer, clients of accounting and accounting and tax offices from the disc solutions were most likely to use a) exemption from payment of ZUS contributions, (b) micro-loan from the Labour Fund, (c) parking benefits for self-employed, contractors, running JDGs. As far as tax facilitation is concerned, the most common use was made of a) suspension of the obligation for debtors to apply the rules on the relief of bad debts, (b) extension of the deadline for notification of payment to an account outside the so-called "white list", (c) the possibility of waiving simplified advances on income tax.
Shield 4.0. Catching up on shortcomings
Entrepreneurs pointed to the lack of several important facilitations in tax law and labour law, namely:
(a) concerning the split payment, i.e. the unlocking of funds from the VAT account and the accelerated refund of VAT from the request addressed to the competent US, with 29% entrepreneurs demanded a departure from compulsory sp. In subsequent versions of the shields, these demands have not been taken into account;
(b) it was also problematic that the government did not introduce a postponement of the deadlines for submitting the VAT return and the JPK VAT. Logistics problems have arisen, while the shield 4.0. It solved them so that the obligation to submit JPK VAT files together with the VAT declaration was shifted from 1 July to 1 October 2020 for all VAT taxable persons;
(c) exemption from the obligation for debtors to apply the provisions on the relief of bad VAT debts to debtors. In the shield 4.0. There have been changes in this area.
The Act provides for taxpayers having negative economic consequences due to COVID-19 the possibility to benefit from relief for bad debts, as regards the deduction of receivables, starting from the settlement period in which it expired 30 the days from the date of expiry of the payment period specified on the invoice (account) or in the contract, until the period during which the claim was settled or disposed of – currently in the PIT and Corporate Income Tax Act, that period is 90 days from the date of expiry of the payment deadline.
Other facilitations which have emerged in the last version of the special legislation are: (a) the possibility of deducting donations, (b) the extension of transfer pricing terms, (c) the extension of tax reporting deadlines, (d) the possibility of including contractual penalties in costs, (e) the introduction of remote tax checks, (f) the right to use copies of residence certificates.
Experts indicate that the provisions of subsequent crisis shields are unclear and contain legislative traps. Because of this, 54% respondents declared that they were further trained in the rules of the shields, which entailed additional costs, and that the proposed law should not be so complicated as to make it difficult for professionals to understand.
Source: LEXOMETR Legal and Economic Report, June 2020
Author: Katarzyna Kołbuś
Editor leading RB Magazine. From Over 10 years related to industry press, including the Financial Gazette and portal ipip.com.pl, which focuses on finance, taxation, law, politics and the economy