Transfer pricing changes take effect
In one of our previous newsletters we informed about the proposed changes to transfer prices, including the COVID-19-related simplifications.
These were introduced upon the Act of 28 November 2020 amending the personal income tax act, corporate income tax act, flat rate income tax on selected earnings of natural persons and other selected acts (Journal of Laws item 2123), promulgated on 30 November 2020.
COVID-19-RELATED SIMPLIFICATONS ALREADY IN FORCE
As the Act was promulgated, the following COVID-19-related simplifications took effect on 1 December 2020:
- No obligation to get a statement of the associated enterprise regarding a transfer pricing adjustment if the tax year to which the adjustment applies or the moment it is made fall in the period of the COVID-19 epidemic or epidemic emergency in Poland,
- No obligation to fulfil the condition of no tax loss when determining applicability of the exemption from documenting domestic transactions if the entity incurred a tax loss in the year of COVID-19 epidemic or epidemic emergency in Poland and its income was lower by at least 50% compared with the preceding year (this simplification can only be applied to documenting transactions made in 2020);
- The possibility to sign a statement on preparation of the local transfer pricing documentation and arm’s length of the documented transactions by:
- a person authorized by a foreign entrepreneur to represent him in the branch – for entities which are foreign entrepreneurs and have a branch in Poland,
- a person authorized to represent – for other associated enterprises,
if the statement is submitted at the time of the COVID-19 epidemics or epidemic emergency or applies to the year in which said epidemics/epidemic emergency was in force.
Given the approaching deadline for submission of the statement on transfer pricing documentation and arm’s length of the prices, the formal simplifications in this respect may be important for a number of taxpayers.
In companies where the management board consists of more than one person and the members are from different countries, getting signatures from all members of the board may prove difficult and time consuming (and the standard regulation impose such an obligation).
With the changes, the statement may be signed by a person (persons) authorised to represent the company, as identified in the excerpt from the registry court. However, it still cannot be signed by a proxy.
OTHER CHANGES
It should be noted that the Act implements also other changes related to transfer pricing, concerning:
- The obligation for CIT payers whose income exceeds EUR 50 million and companies operating as a fiscal unity to publicize their tax strategy reports;
- Transactions with tax havens.
The changes will take effect on 1 January 2021.
LET’S TALK
The Andersen Transfer Pricing Team have substantial experience preparing transfer pricing policies and procedures and analysing transfer pricing obligations, as well as preparing transfer pricing documentation.
Should you have any questions or doubts regarding the issues discussed here, we are ready to assist you.
KONTAKT
E: arkadiusz.zurawicki@pl.Andersen.com
T: +48 22 690 08 71
M: +48 508 092 989
