In Poland, e-commerce is in focus for regulations

t has been announced by the Polish government that by the end of the year it will adopt a draft law enabling the control of e-commerce turnover. According to available information, the Ministry of Finance is already finishing work on the draft act on the tax reporting obligations of digital platforms (such as Amazon). The goal is to regulate digital platform operators in Poland. More precisely, draft legislation guidelines relating to the law on reporting obligations for digital platform operators were added to the list of legislative work and policies of the Council of Ministers. This is also caused by certain regulations that are made on the European Union level, and it will also affect the exchange of the data, to perform better tax control not only on the Polish level, but also on the EU level.

The turnover achieved from trade in goods will be subject to mandatory reporting, but so will data from the rental of real estate and vehicles, parking spaces, and transport (e.g., Uber) or services provided personally, such as renovation works. This information will go to the National Revenue Administration.

We need to wait until official publications, but according to information that is presented in Poland, the obligation to keep records will appear at the moment of entry into force of the act, and reports will have to be submitted to the tax office after one year. Digital platforms that fail to meet reporting obligations will pay penalties. Also, small traders will be excluded from reporting (sellers who make a maximum of 30 transactions a year or have a turnover of up to 2,000 euros).

According to how it is announced, the goal is to incorporate the provisions of the Council Directive amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (DAC7) into domestic law. The legislative proposal aims at the improvement and extension of the applicable provisions on the scope of information exchange and administrative cooperation in the field of taxation.

The proposed solutions include:

• • Imposing on platform operators the obligation to verify whether the activities facilitated through the platform they operate are reportable
  • Enabling a mechanism for the exchange of information between EU Member States
  • Improving the existing ways of cooperation between state administrations by, among other things, introducing the possibility of joint audits