Amendment of the Polish Accounting Act - income tax statements

On 23 April, an announcement was published for Act of 12 April 2024 on amendment of the Accounting Act and certain other acts, which provides for the obligation to draw up an income tax statement. It constitutes the implementation of the European Directive of 24 November 2021 on disclosure of information on paid income tax and other information broken down by individual countries. The said obligation is to restrict the intent of international companies to move their business from one country to another in order to avoid or reduce taxes. What entities will be obligated to disclose information on income tax and to what extent? 

The obligation to draw up, publish and provide the income tax statement will apply to: 

1) the ultimate parent entity - if the income recognized in the consolidated annual financial statement of the said entity exceeds the amount of PLN 3,500,000,000 for each of the two last financial years, 

2) an independent entity - if the revenue recognized in the annual financial statement of that entity exceeds the amount of PLN 3,500,000,000 for each of the two last financial years. 

The ultimate parent entity is understood as the parent entity that draws up the consolidated financial statement covering the highest possible number of related entities in a capital group. An independent entity, on the other hand, is an entity that does not belong to a capital group. The new regulations shall refer to entities constituting a joint-stock company, limited joint-stock company, general partnership, limited partnership of which all the partners incurring unlimited liability are joint-stock companies, limited joint-stock companies or companies from other countries with a similar legal form to such companies. 

The obligation to disclose the income tax statement will not apply in two situations, when: 

1. the ultimate parent entity and all of its subsidiaries and their branches or the independent entity and its branches have a registered office or permanent place of business solely within the territory of the Republic of Poland, or 

1. the ultimate parent entity or the independent entity discloses in the report on operations the information under Art. 111a section 1 point 1 and section 2 of the Act of 29 August 1997 – the Banking Law, subject to the condition that such information refers respectively to all the operations conducted by related entities recognized in the consolidated annual financial statement of the ultimate parent entity or the entire operations of the independent entity. 

The head of the entity obligated to publish and disclose the income tax statement within 12 months from the balance sheet date must submit it to the National Court Register and publish on the company’s website for the period of at least 5 years.  

The obligation to disclose statements shall be also imposed on subsidiaries and branches, if they meet the conditions indicated in the act.  

The income tax statement must be drawn up as of the balance sheet date and must cover information regarding all the operations of the independent entity or the ultimate parent entity, including operations of all subsidiaries recognized in the consolidated financial statement of the ultimate parent entity, for a particular financial year.  

It should contain the following information: 

1) the name of the ultimate parent entity or the independent entity and a list of all subsidiaries that have been recognized in the consolidated financial statement with regard to a particular financial year, with a registered office in a country that belongs to the European Economic Area (EEA) or tax jurisdictions listed in appendices I and II to the conclusion of the Council; 

2) the financial year; 

3) the presentation currency of the income tax statement; 

4) a short description of the nature of the operations of the entity that the statement refers to; 

5) the number of employees expressed in full-time equivalent units; 

6) revenue, including revenue on transactions with related parties, which shall be understood as related entities defined in the IAS, constituting: the total of revenue except for value adjustments and dividends received from related entities – in case of entities with a registered office or or place of executive management within the territory of Poland which do not apply the IAS, revenue within the meaning of financial reporting frameworks under which financial statements are drawn up, except for value adjustments and dividends received from related parties – in a situation other than described in letter a);

7) the amount of profit or loss before taxation; 

8) the amount of the income tax payable in the particular financial year that constitutes the current tax encumbrance of profits or losses subject to taxation in the financial year recognized by entities and branches of a particular tax jurisdiction, without taking into consideration the deferred tax and reserves for contingent tax liabilities; 

9) the amount of the income tax paid in a particular financial year by entities and branches in a particular tax jurisdiction, including the withholding tax paid by other entities with regard to the payment in favor of entities and branches as part of a capital group; 

10) the amount of retained earnings at the end of a particular financial year, covering the amount of retained profit and the amount of profit from a particular financial year that no decision on distribution was made on, whereby in case of branch offices, retained profits shall be understood as retained profits of the entity that established a particular branch office; 

11) information that the statement has been drawn up according to points 1-10 or Art. 63o section 4. 

The first period that will be subject to the obligation to draw up and publish the income tax statement will be the financial year beginning after 21 June 2024. It means that entities in the case of entities the financial year of which corresponds to the calendar year, the first statements will have to be published for year 2025, by 31 December 2026.

Author: Agnieszka Bojar – Manager at MDDP Outsourcing accounting office in Warsaw 

Source:

USTAWA z dnia 12 kwietnia 2024 r. o zmianie ustawy o rachunkowości oraz niektórych innych ustaw