General tax ruling regarding withholding tax matters – breakthrough or continuation of past practice? – part I – dividends

In recent days, the Ministry of Finance has published two general rulings relating to some of the conditions for the exemption from withholding tax of dividend and interest payments. These rulings are important, but are they groundbreaking? How will the existing practice of the authorities and courts change? In the first part, we are going…

The performance of a Polish permanent establishment of a foreign company may be relevant for the national minimum tax

A Polish branch of a foreign company that is a permanent establishment may be part of a group and benefit from a preferential tax rate on income from qualified intellectual property rights. 18 July 2022. The Director of the National Fiscal Information [KIS Director] issued an tax ruling[1] in which wase confirmed that a foreign…

“Omnia sunt interpretanda”? A family foundation – always such a challenge, is it really?

Family foundation it is something that has not been known to Polish legal system until May 2023. As a family foundation is generally exempt from income tax, this exemption is the one that stirs up the most emotion. For this reason, potential founders or existing foundations seek to confirm the tax consequences in private letters…

Departure from the look-through approach in withholding tax by the Polish tax authorities

Since May 2024 this year, the Director of the National Tax Information has issued several individual tax rulings changing the hitherto relatively uniform line of interpretation of the look-through approach (LTA) in withholding tax. The LTA consists of disregarding the formal recipients of payments or intermediaries, attributing the tax consequences of the payment to the…