Winds Of Change Blow Through Polish Finance Ministry

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

10 December 2001

Following the sweeping tax reform programme designed to boost Poland's ailing economy, it was announced on Thursday that the Ministry of Finance has sacked five regional heads of Tax Control Offices in a move to streamline the revenue collection process.

Opinion is divided on this latest move on the part of the Ministry, although unsurprisingly those most immediately affected are less than impressed- the five newly unemployed regional tax chiefs, commenting after their dismissal, descibed the move as 'unequivocally political'.

It is believed that eventually all of the country's Tax Control Offices will be abolished, with the 1,500-strong staff of tax inspectors to be dispersed among tax offices and chambers. The best among them, according to the Polish News Bulletin, are likely to be cherry-picked for corporate tax departments, where they will be in charge of monitoring and tracking large companies, and examining transfer pricing transactions.

Although the sackings have certainly put the regional tax authorities' noses out of joint, there were signs late last week that the Finance Ministry, with its plans for reform and streamlining may be on the right track in gaining public support. Zyta Gilowska, a representative from the Polish Citizens platform, announced on Thursday that the move had her organisation's firm support: 'The structure hitherto was very complicated so moves to standardise the tax authorities make sense,' she observed.

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