ZPP Newsletter
25.10.2017
Entrepreneurs’ rights in Poland are respected on a moderate level. Simplification of law and taxes is needed
Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers has examined how are the entrepreneurs’ rights respected in Poland. The conclusion from the report is that their rights are respected on a moderate level. There has been a slight progress in comparison to the previous year, yet the level of respecting entrepreneurs’ rights has been ranked to 30 points. According to ZPP we are not a country where the entrepreneurs’ rights are perfectly respected (in such a case the value of the index reaches 56+ points), but they are not commonly violated either (0-11 points according to the scale).
The following aspects have been studied during the research: certainty of law, right to be presumed honest, right to a transparent and fast court case, right to recover debts for customers, right to freely conclude contracts, and other areas.
Between 2014 and 2016, we have noticed a slight amelioration of the situation of people running their own business. In comparison to 2015, the index of “respecting the entrepreneurs’ rights in Poland” has risen from 26 to 30 points. However, we have to admit that it is a minor improvement – said Kamil Rybikowski, a ZPP expert in the commercial law.
As the report shows, the main influence on the higher value of the index in 2016 had: decrease in the number of revoked tax decisions, decrease in the number of tax controls, and higher effectiveness in recovering debts from customers. Other areas stayed on the similar level as before. Similarly as in the previous years, the entrepreneurs’ rights are respected on a moderate level with a slight tendency to improve.
The current state of the sector of enterprises is certainly far from disastrous, there are improprieties in basically each element of the functioning of companies in Poland, however: in the judicature, fiscal administration, or legislations – commented Maciej Letkiewicz, a ZPP expert on tax law.
The fundamental impact on performing a business activity in Poland have: tax expenses and very complicated tax system. According to the analysts of ZPP, the too-high tax expenses together with their complicity and time-consumption might become a deterrent for creating new enterprises in Poland. It may also cause many entrepreneurs to flee to the grey zone. When examining this factor, only the taxes vital for a majority of the companies i.e CIT and VAT and tax expenses connected with employing under the employment agreements were taken into account.
For many entrepreneurs the volatility and uncertainty of Polish law is an enormous barrier of starting and running a company. Only in 2016, about 32 thousand new legislative acts were introduced in Poland. We are the record-breaker in this regard among other European countries – said Cezary Kaźmierczak, the President of ZPP. – What is comforting though is the decreasing tendency in the number of tax controls. Also the number of revoking tax decisions in relation to the number of appeals have dropped. It means that the tax bodies issue their decisions more prudently. Unfortunately, many of them are still faulty – he added.
According to ZPP the visible downward trend concerning the tax controls has been achieved due to higher specialisation of the tax bodies and using modern IT tools which helped to better select units for the controls.
In the report, we have also addressed the issue of VAT frauds which undoubtedly is a major problem in the activity of many honest entrepreneurs. They are the subject of the problem of shifting the responsibility for the tax frauds – said Kamil Rybikowski. Another vital matter for people running their own business is the financial solvency so they can realise transactions and actively participate in the business transactions. Depriving entrepreneurs of the VAT refunds, caused by shifting the responsibility for their contractors actions violate their solvency.
The other flaws are: low debt recovery effectiveness, inefficiency of companies registration system through the Internet, long-lasting law proceedings. For example, in 2016 more than 523 thousand commercial cases were finished in the common courts and almost half of them stayed unsolved.
The aim of our Report on respecting the entrepreneurs’ rights in Poland is to show entrepreneurs as citizens who, except of the variety of mandatory responsibilities towards the state, or employees, have their rights which ought to be respected. In this respect, many things still need to be amended. The amelioration, if it exists at all, is definitely too slow – concluded Maciej Letkiewicz.
The ZPP experts unanimously claim that to ameliorate the situation of entrepreneurs, reforms in the judicature ought to be introduced. Both on the level of courts and execution. We should also mention the ongoing and planned alternations concerning sealing the tax system, which would definitely influence the situation of our enterprises.
FILM SUMMERISING THE REPORT
Report of ZPP: Respecting the entrepreneurs’ rights in Poland
