Controversy over capital gains tax on rights to shares

The decision will mostly affect investors who participated in a flurry of IPOs at the year's end. "Rights to shares and actual shares are treated as two different types of securities. Therefore if the stock is registered on the investor's account in 2004, following the swap of the right to shares, the revenues from their sales will be taxed," said Anna Puzyn-Sobocińska of the Finance Ministry press office. According to Magdalena Raszdorf, the head of product development and marketing department at CDM Pekao brokerage house, such a decision will make investors feel cheated. Robert Krasnodębski, councilor at Weil, Gotshal & Manges law firm supports Finance Ministry's stance. "Only an additional ordinance issued by the Finance Ministry could put the investors in a beneficial position. The literal analysis of the bill is not favorable to them," he said. (Parkiet, p. 1) A.K.