On March 24, the Ministry of Finance presented a draft of the next amendment to the Polish Deal – consultations will last until April 2. The proposed changes are aimed at eliminating unsuccessful solutions and clarifying the whole reform. However, the proposed amendment does not significantly change the degree of fiscal burden on taxpayers, but once again during the tax year it introduces changes in the rules of making settlements. Moreover, the Minister announces that this is not the end of changes this year.
According to the assumptions of the draft authors’ , the act shall come into force on 1 July and apply retroactively from the beginning of the year. The Ministry of Finance proposed the following changes, f.e.:
1) removing the complicated relief for the middle class, the criticized relief for monuments
(“Pałacyk +”) and the abolition relief;
2) reduction of the tax rate from 17% to 12% in the first range of the tax scale, which also means a new tax reduction amount of 3600PLN per year because of the maintenance of the tax-free amount;
3) change of the rules for applying the tax-free amount, i.e. the possibility of making a statement of not collecting tax advances, as well as statement of reducing the tax advance by a free amount, also for three payers in the same time (respectively by the amount of PLN 300, 150, 100 depending on the number of payers); the possibility of reducing the tax advance payment will also apply to those who are self-employed;
4) obliging the payer to inform the newly employed person about the possibility of making a statement of applying the free tax amount by the payer and deducting the healthcare contribution when calculating the tax advance;
5) limited possibility of including the healthcare contribution in settlements in the form of:
- deductions from income (or recognition as tax deductible costs) up to 8 700 PLN – for entrepreneurs paying flat tax (19%);
- recognizing 50% of healthcare contribution as tax deductible costs – for those paying a lump sum on recorded income;
- tax deductions of 19% of healthcare contribution – for those paying with a tax card;
6) restoring the possibility of single parent settlements with the child, which is to allow the double use of the tax-free amount;
7) increasing the income limit of an adult learning child, on which the parent’s or legal guardian’s right to benefit from tax reliefs depends, to 12 times the social pension, which in 2022. means the amount of PLN 16,061.28;
8) limiting the relief for working seniors only to those people who, despite obtaining retirement rights, have not retired (did not receive a pension) and covering the general partners of a limited joint-stock partnership with the obligation to pay healthcare contributions – from January 1, 2023;
9) making possible to use the tax-free amount in relation to minors’ income, not being settled together with the statutory representative, i.e. income from work, scholarships and items given them for free use;
10) postponement of the obligation to send electronic books of accounts;
11) removing introduced three month ago the way of extending collection and paying advances for income tax (double calculation of contributions), intended to eliminate the risk of large subsidies in the annual tax settlement
As the Ministry of Finance pointed out, there may be a taxpayer for whom a combination of e.g. middle class relief with other reliefs would be more beneficial than the proposed changes. In such a case, the e-PIT system will show him a more favorable settlement option in the next year’s annual settlement, in accordance with the wording of the Act of January 1, 2022.
In practice, this leads to the conclusion that several different tax systems apply at the same time. Another problem is the fact that many taxpayers have already chosen the form of taxation – in a completely different legal state than the one according to which they will be settled for. In turn, the amendment is silent on the subject of making another change in 2022. Of course, the final assessment of the changes should wait for the Sejm to pass the final wording of the act, but today it can be expected that it will introduce at least as many doubts than the “Polish Order”.