On 08 October 2021 there was finalised a major reform of the international tax system at the OECD which will ensure that Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) will be subject to a minimum 15% tax rate from 2023.

The landmark deal, agreed by 136 countries and jurisdictions representing more than 90% of global GDP, will also reallocate more than USD 125 billion of profits from around 100 of the world’s largest and most profitable MNEs to countries worldwide, ensuring that these firms pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate and generate profits.

Following years of intensive negotiations to bring the international tax system into the 21st century, 136 jurisdictions (out of the 140 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS) joined the Statement on the Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy. It updates and finalises a July 2021 political agreement by members of the Inclusive Framework to fundamentally reform international tax rules.

With Estonia, Hungary and Ireland having joined the agreement, it is now supported by all OECD and G20 countries. Four countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – have not yet joined the agreement.

International community strikes a ground-breaking tax deal for the digital age

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The Court of Justice of the European Union, in a judgment important not only for IT environments, decided that if a computer program does not work, in certain cases it can be decompiled

The buyer of a computer program has the right to decompile it in order to remove errors and thus does not infringe the copyright, the Court of Justice of the European Union found in a judgment important not only for IT communities, on 6 October 2021.

Computer programs are considered works and therefore are subject to copyright in Poland. However, these are specific works, therefore, at the EU level, a separate directive on the legal protection of computer programs (91/250/EEC) has been dedicated to them. It regulates a number of technological aspects related to the use of software, including its possible decompilation. The buyer of the program usually does not have access to its source code. He gets it in the form of machine code. In order to change something in it, it is necessary to decompile it. The question, however, is when is it legally permissible.

Decompilation therefore constitutes an alteration of the program’s code, which involves a reproduction – at least a partial and temporary one – of that code, and a translation of the form of that code.

Decompilation of a computer program involves the performance of acts, namely the reproduction of the program code and the translation of the form of that code, which in fact come within the exclusive rights of the author, as defined in Article 4(a) and (b) of Directive 91/250.

EU legislature thus intended to limit the scope of the exception for interoperability, as laid down in that provision, to circumstances in which the interoperability of an independently created program with other programs cannot be carried out by any other means, but only by means of decompilation of the program concerned.

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Background information on the EU VAT CBR (Cross-Border Rulings) project

The EU VAT CBR is a project which was initiated in the framework of the EU VAT Forum group and which is currently being implemented by 18 EU Member States (Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden). The purpose of the EU VAT CBR is to meet the expectations of VAT taxpayers who, when planning their economic activities, would like to be certain about the taxation of the same transaction in different EU Member States. The EU VAT CBR is therefore a tool to prevent VAT disputes and aims at ensuring fiscal neutrality. [1]

Cross Border Rulings findings

EU VAT CBR (Cross-Border Rulings) is a new form of cooperation between the Polish Head of the National Tax Administration and VAT taxpayers. Cooperation with the administration of another EU Member State with a view to agreeing on an interpretation of VAT law is carried out at the request of the taxpayer. In connection with Poland’s accession to the EU VAT CBR project implemented by some EU Member States, the applicants are entitled to apply to the Polish National Tax Administration with a Preliminary CBR Application, and after its acceptance by the Polish National Tax Administration, with the already applicable CBR Application. [2] The intention of the CBR proposal is to agree, at the request of a taxpayer, an interpretation of VAT law in cross-border cases with the tax administration of an EU Member State that has joined the EU VAT CBR. [3] There is no fee to submit a Preliminary CBR Application and a CBR Application.

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The planned 5G auction in Poland has already aroused quite lively industry discussions regarding the establishment of its basic regulatory assumptions.

The imbalance between the demand and supply of frequency resources makes it necessary to allocate them in the selection procedure in Poland, based on Polish legal regulations, e.g. on the European Code of Electronic Communications, which should be implemented by December 21, 2020 at the latest. The draft of the new Polish Act – Electronic Communications Law is already delayed, which is important for the conditions of the 5G auctions in Poland.

Polish law distinguishes three types of so-called selection procedures: competition, tender and auction. The competition does not apply in the case of 5G, the tender and auction come to the fore in this respect.

The basic difference between a tender and an auction is expressed in the method of evaluating the bids. Pursuant to the Polish Act – Telecommunications Law, the criteria for evaluating bids in the tender are compliance with the conditions of competition, the amount declared by the tender participant and other objective criteria. On the other hand, the criterion for evaluating the bids in the auction is only the amount declared by the auction participant.

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In the era of COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping has become even more popular. Electronic payments are one of the most important, if not the most important segment of modern finance. Many companies have been quick to recognize this trend by introducing the BNPL (buy now pay later) service. This service allows you to postpone the payment for purchases for up to 30 days. However, most importantly it is a free service with no hidden additional costs as long as the buyer pays for the product on time. In case the consumer does not pay, he will have to pay commissions or be charged interest. In practice it means that the buyer pays for the product after receiving it, gets acquainted with it, checks whether it suits him and whether it works properly. With the rapid progress of digitalization, consumers’ approach to shopping and paying for the latter is changing. Such a facility is useful especially in the case of fashion shopping, where the customer has the opportunity to try the product before making the final decision. This service enjoys considerable interest in Poland and worldwide, e.g. in the United Kingdom it has already been used by nearly 33 percent of consumers who shop online.

Buy now pay later in Poland – legal regulations and market trends

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