The tax office cancels tax debts for bankruptcy
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the number of taxpayers to whom the tax office has donated debts has fallen. Tax offices do not resign from the tax, especially from entrepreneurs and remit it only to those who do not have any assets. Companies which own any assets are encouraged to sell or encumber their assets and transfer the obtained funds to repay tax liabilities.
According to the regulations of the tax ordinance, the possibility of cancelling tax debts will have a chance to prove that it is justified by the public interest or an important interest (art. 67a). Experts indicate that a difficult material situation threatening the existence or the effect of a negative decision in the form of liquidation of the company and dismissal of employees does not convince the treasury to take a decision on the cancellation of liabilities.
Entrepreneurs are more likely to spread the liability into instalments or postpone the payment deadline than to redeem it. However, it often happens that the authorities refuse to do so because they are afraid that the company will be liquidated and the assets will be sold.
According to the data obtained from the Ministry of Finance, in 2016 the tax of over 27 thousand entities was discontinued, and in 2017 – 20 thousand. On the other hand, in the first half of 2018, 5.6 thousand entities were redeemed. The total amount of redemptions amounted to PLN 73 million in 2016, in 2017 PLN 146 million, and the half of this year is almost PLN 163 million. The amount of redeemed VAT increased in particular.
Entities to which tax arrears have been remitted can be found in announcements of individual directors of tax administration chambers.
