General Anti-Abusive Regulations (GAAR) in Poland

General Anti-Abusive Regulations (GAAR) were introduced in Poland as of 15 July 2016. However, for the first 3 years, they were scarcely used. 
This has however changed. In the press publications of 16 October 2020, the Ministry of Finance informs that he has just finished 20 tax proceedings which resulted in PLN 500M of additional taxable income assessed at the side of 12 taxpayers. 

Most recently it is a real estate transaction or business or ownership restructuring (e.g. transfer of the significant asset, intragroup financing reorganization) which is under the scrutiny of the tax authorities. 

Given the fact that:

• the tax authorities may review tax reconciliations dating back to 2014 (due to 5-6 year statutory period of limitation in Poland); 

• in 2014 and 2015 there were still some loopholes in the tax law and at the same time no effective anti-abusive regulations existed yet real estate transactions and restructuring which took place in 2014 and 2015 are in practice most vulnerable. In some cases, no business justification accompanied these transactions. 

Should you plan to acquire or already acquired shares in a company holding real estate property which was subject to tax step-up or restructuring in the past without sound business justification, please contact our experts to discuss the company’s tax position.