Due to the upcoming Brexit transition period deadline Head of the Second Tax Office Warszawa-Śródmieście sent information for businesses with residence or its seat in Great Britain or businesses from outside of EU with fixed establishment in Great Britain, registered in the Second Tax Office Warszawa-Śródmieście for VAT purposes, on the obligations and method of settling VAT tax, starting on 01.01.2021.
Above mentioned taxpayers from 01.01.2021 will be treated as taxpayers from a third country, to which provisions of the VAT Act will apply (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1325 with later amendments) – Section II, Chapter 2 Tax representatives, art. 18a – art. 18d.
Businesses will be required to appoint a tax representative for settlements of VAT in Poland and to submit an agreement on the appointment of a tax representative, including updates of registration documents in this regard. This obligation will apply to both businesses who register after 01.01.2021 and businesses already registered in Poland as active VAT taxpayers.
Entrepreneurs who have so far obtained a VAT number in Poland will not be automatically deleted on 01.01.2021 and will not lose their VAT numbers. However, they will be obliged to immediately indicate a tax representative, which is obligatory in Poland for companies from third countries.
To establish a tax representative taxpayer has to submit UPL-1 authorization document for the tax representative and/or the UPL-1 authorization document for the person authorized by the tax representative.
Such a position was confirmed by both the Voivodeship Administrative Court and the Supreme Administrative Court (judgment of 02/03/2017), which were of the opinion the act of filing a declaration includes the act of signing it. Tax representative as a party obligated to fil-ng a tax declaration is also required to sign it and that excludes the possibility of independent action by the taxpayer in this respect. This is because it is a power reserved by law for a tax representative.
Formal fulfillment of the obligation to appoint a tax representative while settling the tax independently by the taxpayer, omitting the tax representative, will circumvent the statutory obligation, and therefore VAT declarations submitted by persons authorized under the existing UPL-1 authorizations will not be considered legally effective.
Read more about our VAT reporting services in Poland https://polishtax.com/services/tax-and-accounting/vat-reporting-poland/