Register of VAT taxpayers in the explanations of the Minister of Finance

In view of the fact that as of January 1, 2020 all regulations, including sanctions, concerning making transfers to bank accounts which are not listed in the register referred to in Article 96b of the VAT Act will come into force, the Minister of Finance issued explanations on this issue. They do not contain unexpected answers or new solutions to problems, but help to organize knowledge about new responsibilities. Below, in the subsections, some issues that have not been addressed so far, but may be important in everyday business practice from the new year onwards, are explained. Well, in the register:

1. There are only bank accounts referred to in Article 49 section 1 point 1 of the Banking Law or accounts kept in SKOK,
2. Foreign currency accounts may also be posted,
3. No „personal accounts” are posted (ROR) of natural persons engaged in economic activity,
4. Virtual accounts are not included,
5. However, a deposit into such an account shall be deemed to meet the statutory requirements if it is allocated to a settlement account entered in the register,
6. There are no entities which have been refused registration or removed from the register,
7. Here will be accounts of foreign entities registered as VAT payers in Poland. This obligation does not apply to foreign entities using a foreign registration number,

In addition:

1. Obligations and sanctions resulting from the register under Article 96b of the VAT Act, not related to TNT and imports,
2. Payment using PayPal, PayU, DotPay, etc. is not a payment made by transfer to the account. Therefore, payment in this way to an account outside the List will not result in negative tax consequences in the form of loss of the possibility to include expenses as tax deductible costs in PIT and CIT and joint and several liability in VAT. This means that a taxpayer does not need to verify to which account his funds will be transferred and whether the account is on the List if the payment will be made by him by means of those other than the transfer of payment instruments,
3. As regards the set-off of claims, the entire value of the claim shall be taken into account, not the resulting set-off,
4. In the case of advances, it is the value of the whole transaction that counts, not of a single transaction,
5. When making deposits into escrow or fiduciary accounts, it is essential that,
6. The moment the expense incurred is recognised as a deductible expense, namely as a deductible expense may be the cost actually incurred, while in the case of trust and escrow accounts, the cash is only secured until the execution of the agreement. However, if the payment into the trust and escrow account is confirmed with an invoice by an active VAT taxpayer, the purchaser should, in order to avoid negative tax consequences, submit a notification to the competent head of the tax office about the payment into an account not listed in the register,
7. If a notice of payment has been sent to an account outside the register, the taxpayer shall not be obliged to make such notice again if another payment has been made to the same account outside the register of which the taxpayer has already informed the authorities once by submitting a relevant notice. It will be sufficient to make a one-time notification of such an account to the competent head of the tax office,
8. The obligation to check accounts does not exist for payments made to the account of a judicial officer or other enforcement authority in the framework of enforcement of this debt,
9. In relation to taxpayers making payments to their own economy accounts and the so called „bank accounts” assignment accounts of banks/SKOKs that are not listed in the register, no sanctions in PIT and CIT income taxes and joint and several liability in VAT will be applied,
10. It will be possible to check backwards which taxpayer had an account number during the period when it was,
11. A registered active VAT taxable person. The register will enable the retrieval of information about the date and time on which the taxpayer has checked that the account is entered in the register.