Planned changes to WH-OSC statement
Yesterday, the Government Legislative Centre published a bill amending the conditions for filing statements required for non-collection of the WHT (in excess of the PLN 2 million threshold value) – WH-OSC.
The bill addresses the doubts that have recently arisen with respect to the number of times the WH-OSC statement can be filed per year and whether the statement may be filed repeatedly during the tax year. The tax authorities are of the opinion that the WH-OSC statement can be filed twice only, i.e. as the initial statement and a follow-up. Therefore, with respect to subsequent payments (when the protection offered by the statement no longer applies), the WHT would need to be collected in its full amount.
The bill may be of particular importance for those companies that have filed the statement during the year and currently plan e.g. to pay dividend. According to the current regulations, it is possible that, in principle, the statement does not apply to payment of the dividend and the obligation to collect WHT arises.
The documents published indicate that:
- The validity of the original statement (based on Art. 26(7a) of the CIT Act) is extended until the end of the tax year in which it was filed.
- If it is extended, a follow-up statement should be filed (based on Art. 26(7g) of the CIT Act) by the end of the month following the end of the tax year (in principle – January 2023);
- Comments can be made to the bill until 4 August 2022;
- The bill is treated as urgent and it is to take effect in August;
- The wording of the regulations does not offer an unequivocal answer as to which statements will be subject to extension under the regulation (whether the extension will also apply to statements filed from the beginning of the year);
- According to the explanatory memorandum: The situation of remitters who filed the statement before 1 June is to be made easier by the planned legislative changes and their entry into force retrospectively for the entire 2022. – this may indicate that the mechanism under the regulation will apply to statements filed after 31 May 2022. The statements filed earlier are to be subject to legislative changes – we assume that this applies to the bill of 28 June 2022 – the Polish Deal 3.0
- At the moment it is difficult to assess the approach to the statements filed before 1 June 2022 and to answer the question whether the Ministry decides to extend the scope of the regulation to all statements, also those filed to date.
Suspension of certain payments until the regulation enters in force may be a worthwhile option. We shall inform you as soon as the regulation takes effect (in particular whether the current wording of the regulation turns out to be final).
The experts of our Law Firm are available if you need any support.
A link to the bill: https://legislacja.rcl.gov.pl/projekt/12362504
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