Electronic database of VAT taxpayers (“white list”)

The white list will be run by the Head of National Fiscal Administration (Szef KAS). The list will contain information about VAT taxpayers and about entities removed from the VAT register. Moreover, it will include numbers of bank accounts of taxpayers.

The main purpose of the white list is to make it easier to verify potential business partners. The list will be updated once a day every working day and taxpayers using it will receive confirmation of the date and time at which they verified a given entity.

Taxpayers are not obliged to take any further steps in order to be included on the white list. The tax authorities will register all taxpayers on the list based on the data they already have.

New regulations introduce sanctions for transfers of funds to taxpayers’ bank accounts other than indicated on the white list. Taxpayers making transfers will be deprived of the right to qualify the expense as a tax cost in the part in which the payment was made to the bank account which is not shown on the list. This rule applies to payments exceeding PLN 15,000. Additionally, in such case a buyer will be jointly and severally liability for the supplier’ s VAT arrears - in the part attributable to the given transaction (a given bank transfer). In some circumstances sanctions can be avoided.

The above changes will come into force on 1 September, but the sanctions will apply from 1 January 2020.

Taking into account the described changes, taxpayers should check if the bank accounts they use have been duly notified to the tax authorities in an identification or updating notification. Only then will the numbers of those bank accounts be included on the white list. Moreover, taxpayers will have to verify if the bank accounts of their business partners to which they make wire transfers are shown on the list.