In selected industries, employees can only pay tax on 50% of their income – new rules in Poland
In the case of Polish employees – IP creators, such as software developers, architects or engineers, “creative employees” of foreign companies have the privilege of paying income tax at the level of 50%. The idea is to stimulate the need to accelerate the development of industrial property in Poland, and the incentive for this is the preferential method of paying lower taxes, the basis of which is only half of the salary. This means that the second half of the salary is not subject to income tax. Polish tax offices are increasingly actively monitoring Polish employment contracts in software and engineering professions. A properly created employment contract template guarantees the legality of such a solution.
KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG LEGAL prepared a compilation of updates in Polish employment law – crucial from the perspective of cross border work and employment issues.
Planned changes in the legal provisions on wind farms in Poland
The change of government in Poland brought about by the elections of October 15, 2023 pursues a liberal policy towards renewable energy. Already at the first session, the Parliament started working on the liberalization of wind energy law.
Direction of legal changes
The new ruling coalition declares liberalization of the law regarding wind energy. The aim of such action is the general development of regions through numerous windmill investments and increasing the amount of electricity consumed from green energy. Additionally, liberal legislation in this area will allow meeting the milestones needed to disburse financial resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Currently, the accelerated urbanization of cities combined with stricter regulations is causing investment stagnation in the area of building new windmills.
Based on Regulation 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 on batteries and waste batteries, repealing Directive 2006/66/EC and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020.
The development and production of batteries are Europe’s strategic goals in the clean energy transition. This is mainly due to the fact that they are also a key part of the European automotive sector, and transport is responsible for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and is the main cause of air pollution in EU cities.
EU agencies believe that the more widespread use of electric vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and harmful emissions from transport. It is assumed that in the years 2020-2030 the number of electric vehicles in the EU will increase to at least 30 million (currently there are 3.1 million).
The Council and the European Parliament adopted Regulation 2023/1542 of 12 July 2023 on batteries and waste batteries, amending Directive 2008/98/EC and Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and repealing Directive 2006/66/EC. Previous regulations of the European Union (EU) covered only the stage of withdrawing batteries from use. The current regulations focus in particular on the management of used batteries.
On October 1, 2023, a controversial amendment to the Polish Penal Code entered into force. The changes introduced by it include, among others, tightening penalties for crimes listed in Chapter XXXVI of the Polish Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as the Penal Code), i.e. crimes against business transactions and property interests in civil law transactions. People holding important positions in companies should feel particularly at risk, because in their case the penalties will be much higher.
Penalties for white collar crimes.
Introduced together with the amendment to the Penal Code, Art. 306b of the Penal Code, creates new qualifying types for acts under Art. 296 § 1 or 2 of the Penal Code (abuse of trust in business transactions), Art. 296a § 1 or 4 of the Penal Code (economic bribery of the basic and qualified types), Art. 299 § 1, 2, 5 or 6 of the Penal Code (money laundering) or in Art. 303 § 1 of the Penal Code (unreliable and false economic documentation). These types are based on the amount of property involved in the crime or the amount of damage. And accordingly, in accordance with Art. 306b § 1 of the Penal Code, the qualifying mark is committing an act in relation to property with a value (or causing damage of a certain amount) greater than five times the amount determining the property of great value (PLN 5,000,000), while the qualifying mark under § 2 is the value greater than ten times the amount determining property of great value (PLN 10,000,000).
