- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2021
Strengthening the transfer pricing legal system against tax evasive behaviour
The Commission helped to strengthen the transfer pricing legal system in Poland to further align it with internationally agreed standards, best practices, and OECD guidelines in the transfer pricing area, through capacity building workshops to over one hundred officials delivered by the OECD and EU and international experts, and a report describing international transfer pricing practices prepared by the OECD with support from selected OECD members.
Context
In recent years, Poland has introduced a series of tax reforms with the aim of countering tax avoidance, including amendments to transfer pricing regulations. Poland’s request for support corresponds to its need to further strengthen the Polish transfer pricing system.
The problem has a wide-reaching economic impact, as an effective and fair tax system plays an important role in the investment attractiveness of the economy. Therefore, it is important to both curb the behaviour of aggressive taxpayers and create a business-friendly environment for compliant taxpayers. In doing so, Poland can build on the experience of other OECD countries by gaining a comprehensive understanding of the foreign legislative and/or administrative approaches followed on specific transfer pricing issues. Furthermore, strengthening the knowledge of the Polish Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials also plays a key role in enhancement of the Polish transfer pricing rules that is consistent with the arm’s length principle and the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The improved alignment of the Polish transfer pricing system and practice with the internationally agreed standards in the transfer pricing area can greatly contribute to increase tax certainty, reduce disputes, and create an environment that is attractive to business.
An important goal is to simplify tax regulations as well as to reduce bureaucratic and administrative burdens for entrepreneurs. Potential future tax reforms in Poland may concern a package of legislative measures aimed at tightening the tax system, in particular in the field of income taxes to ensure that the amount of tax paid by large enterprises, in particular international ones, is linked to the actual place of their income.
The technical support was provided in the area of revenue administration, with the purpose of strengthening the transfer pricing legal framework of Poland and enhancing the capacity of the Polish Tax Administration to assess transfer pricing policies implemented by multinational enterprises under the conditions set in the Framework Delegation Agreement REFORM/IM2021/006 (hereinafter “the Agreement”).
Support delivered
This EU funded project was delivered to the Polish Ministry of Finance by the OECD over 22 months from 2021. It finished in July 2023 with a closing event and technical conference in Warsaw hosted by the Polish Ministry of Finance with financial assistance provided by TAIEX.
The project aimed to improve the capacity of the Polish Ministry of Finance and tax officials to deal with both legislative and administrative approaches to transfer pricing matters.
The OECD delivered two outputs:
1. A report describing country approaches on specific transfer pricing issues. This report was produced by the OECD, with the contribution of fifteen, OECD members (including seven EU members), and is for internal use by the Polish Ministry of Finance only. The report was delivered in July 2023 at a closing event in Warsaw.
2. Targeted capacity-building workshops. The OECD, supported by the EU and international experts from nine government administrations and five private sector organisations, delivered more than one hundred hours of training over five targeted capacity-building workshops. Up to one hundred participants logged in online to attend the workshops. Workshops covered important transfer pricing issues at the request of Polish officials.
Results achieved
The OECD supported by the EU and international experts from nine government administrations and five private sector organisations delivered more than one hundred hours of workshops to over one hundred online participants. Over nine hundred pages of workshop materials were produced and delivered to the Polish Ministry of Finance to be used as reference material for internal capacity building.
Very positive feedback was received from Polish officials. The workshops responded to participants’ needs in an effective way.
This training significantly improved capacity in transfer pricing within the Polish Ministry of Finance and National Revenue Administration.
The OECD has also produced a report describing country approaches to selected transfer pricing topics, with the support from fifteen OECD members, including seven EU members. The report covered a variety of cutting-edge transfer pricing topics and amounted to over 400 pages on country approaches from which Poland can leverage to improve its own transfer pricing system. This report is for the benefit of the Polish Ministry of Finance and will not be disseminated publicly.
The project will improve the quality of transfer pricing risk assessments and audits, increase efficiency of audits, effectively tackle aggressive tax planning and BEPS activities and improve revenue collection. Additionally, this will result in increased tax certainty for business and create a business-friendly environment for compliant taxpayers.
Useful links
https://www.gov.pl/web/finanse/sukces-mf-polska-rozpoczyna-projekt-w-ramach-unijnego-programu-tsi
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7085535828621312000
https://twitter.com/MF_GOV_PL/status/1679421169210998785
Social media
- Capacity building workshop on 16-23 March 2023:
- Capacity building workshop on 11-17 May 2023:
- Closing event in Warsaw (Poland) on 11-12 July 2023: