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Polish Businesses React To Tax Reforms

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

16 November 2001

There have been a variety of reactions to the new coalition government's tax reform programme, adopted earlier this week.

The amendments agreed include the imposition of a tax on income from bank savings and bonds, a two year freeze on tax thresholds, and the replacement of the large housing construction allowance with an allowance to offset a proportion of the interest paid on housing loans against income, and are expected to raise PLZ4 billion in additional revenue.

Although the new government has been praised for its efficiency in pushing the solutions through the Sejm, and the Finance Minister Marek Belka has a strong parliamentary backing, there are those who doubt that the imposition of new financial burdens on the Polish people is the best way to cope with the country's economic hardships.

These doubts were expressed last week by the Polish Business Centre Club (BCC), which, although it reluctantly afforded its support to the measures, expressed grave concerns. 'We have pointed out on many occasions that the actions taken by the Polish authorities in relation to income tax go against the tendencies existing in the majority of the developed and developing countries,' BCC President Marek Goliszewski explained at the time.

However, the announcement that the reforms have been adopted has breathed new life into the construction sector, and some reports have stated that sales in certain regions of Poland have doubled. Not everyone is cock-a-whoop at the prospect of the changes though; speaking to the Polish News Bulletin on Wednesday, Ewa Ilowiecka of the Asbud construction company stated that in his opinion, potential investors would prefer to take the tax concession than depend on sometimes hard to obtain mortgages.

http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011115001934&query=tax http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011115001908&query=tax http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6271 http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6209

 

 






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