We have packages in every big city today, and more and more often also in smaller towns or villages. Their supporters praise a green solution and make life easier for citizens. Opponents claim that they disfigure the landscape and that they should be taxed, if not a property tax, is a charge subject to public display advertising tax rates.
The logistics revolution of self-service shipments continues in the best. InPost already has 11,000 parcels, their network is also expanded by Allegro and Poczta Polska. And where there's a good business, there's a lot of temptation to get something out of it for you.
Additional tax – alongside income and service tax – is undoubtedly an increase in the price of shipments
Rzeczpospolita raised the problem of recognising parcels as a construction site, which opens the way for local governments to impose taxes on them. The rates of construction tax (i.e. buildings that are not buildings) may be different in different municipalities – they are defined in their resolutions by the municipal council.
In the case of buildings, the fee is a percentage and is 2% the value of these structures. For the owners of the parcels, this would mean fees of different order, because we also have packages of different value – they can cost from several tens of thousand zł to several hundred thousand zł.
Opponents point out that it is difficult to clearly and simply say that the parcel is a building.
According to Article 3(1) Act of 7 July 1994 Construction law (Journal of Laws of 2010, item 1623) under the concept of a building shall be understood as:
- (a) the building with technical installations and facilities,
- (b) a structure constituting the technical and usable whole together with installations and equipment,
(c) a small architecture object.
There is no official definition of a package, but many commentators say it is rather a technical device, not a building. On the Allekurier website, for example, we have a proposal to define them as "a system of automated mail boxes in which you can transmit and receive shipments". It seems, however, that even considering this definition as basic, the package is subject to the definition of the structure as a technical-use whole, together with installations and equipment.
Packages as constructions could therefore be subject to property tax, possibly considered as advertising media and may be charged for the use of advertising surfaces exposed to the public (as such structures may also be covered) 2% tax).
An additional tax – alongside the income and the service tax – is undoubtedly an increase in the price of shipments.