On 4 September this year, the Sejm passed the so-called major VAT amendment (which is the result of a government project). The act is currently awaiting the President’s signature and publication in the Journal of Laws. We hope that it will not be subject to a veto; below we present a few key changes.
As a rule, the provisions of the amendment come into force on 1 January 2027, with some exceptions, but it is worth analysing them all and assessing whether and how they affect your business activity.
Key changes
- Extension of the scope of application of the buyer’s joint and several liability for the seller’s tax arrears1 by:
- covering the above-mentioned liability for certain intangible services, including consulting, management, accounting and accounting, advertising or research (!) indicated in the new Appendix No. 16 to the VAT Act – in a situation where the buyer knew or had reasonable grounds to assume that the VAT attributable to these services would not be paid and:
- the total receivable resulting from the invoice exceeds PLN 15 thousand, or
- the net value of the above-mentioned services purchased from one entity exceeds PLN 50 thousand in a given month;
- introduction of an exclusion of the buyer’s joint and several liability regime in the case of the application of the split payment mechanism („MPP)” to the above-mentioned services.
To do:
Update the list of liabilities that will be settled using the MPP. The list should include:
- transactions subject to the obligatory MPP – i.e. goods/services indicated in Appendix No. 15 of the VAT Act, for example, selected metals, construction services, etc.;
- transactions concerning intangible services, listed in Appendix No. 16 to the VAT Act, selected by yourself, in order to exclude the risk of applying the buyer’s joint and several liability mechanism for the seller’s liabilities (and the need to guess whether there was an assumption that the seller will not settle his/her VAT liability).
- Introduction of the possibility of checking the status of a taxpayer in the list of VAT taxpayers 5 years back2
Practical note:
A good change, it enables to move away from the practice of archiving the results of regularly performed checks of the status of the contractor(s) for VAT purposes.
- Change in the method of describing goods in Appendix No. 15 to the Act (MPP) – transition from PKWiU (Polish statistical classification of goods and services) to CN (Combined Nomenclature classification of goods used in the European Union for purpose of import / export).
Practical note:
If you are a supplier of goods listed in Appendix No. 15 (for example: car parts):
- determine the correct CN codes
- determine the documents on which the CN code is to be shown (invoices, orders, etc.) and from what date it is to take place (special rules apply to deliveries and invoices from the turn of the 2026/2027 period.
- Elimination of the obligation to disclose in VAT returns goods and services purchased from foreign contractors (i.e. taxpayers without a registered office or fixed establishment in Poland) as a result of a transaction exempt from VAT3. It may cover the import of services such as certain financial services (loans), insurance services, and health care services.
Practical note:
Enter a separate record of transactions constituting the import of taxable and VAT exempt services and exclude the latter type of services from recognition in the VAT return.
- Introduction of the institution of the so-called VAT warehouse and the VAT warehouse procedure4 – an option available only for a limited group of goods:
- It will apply only to trade in selected goods, such as, for example: coffee, tea, spices, cocoa, wool, yarn, horsehair fabrics, indicated in the implementing regulation.
- The procedure will allow the taxpayer to:
- application of the 0% VAT rate both for the supply of the above-mentioned goods to the VAT warehouse (also as a result of the Intra Community Acquisition of goods) and the supply of goods within the VAT warehouse and services provided in the VAT warehouse, directly related to the goods covered by the above-mentioned procedure;
- postponing the moment when the tax obligation arises until the VAT warehouse procedure is completed (i.e. in principle when the goods are removed from the VAT warehouse).
- The application of the VAT warehouse procedure requires obtaining a special permit from the head of the tax office for both the supplier and the buyer of the above-mentioned goods.
Practical note:
The change is beneficial, but for a limited scope of entities. The VAT warehouse procedure will allow to improve cash flow and simplify VAT settlements, but only in the trade of a very limited range of goods.
Attention! At the stage of government or parliamentary work, there are several other draft amendments to the VAT Act (e.g. the draft abolishing the obligation to submit VAT-EU summary information, change of legal definition of export of goods and the catalogue of documentation required to prove export of goods). Therefore, the list of changes in the scope of VAT is not yet closed.
Summary, what we offer?
- presentation of all or selected (passed and pending) changes in VAT regulations along with an assessment of whether and how they will affect your business
- conducting tax workshops for employees in order to communicate how new rules, regulations, along with a practical discussion of selected events/transactions.
If you want to know more details – we can help you with that.
Authors: Agnieszka Czarnecka / Katarzyna Jaromińska
1 Amendments to Article 105a of the Value Added Tax Act
2 Amendment of Article 96b(2) of the Value Added Tax Act
3 Addition of paragraph 1k to Article 17 of the Value Added Tax Act
4 New Chapter 11 in Section XII of the Value Added Tax Act, including Article 138k – Article 138za
