Economic freedom law "answer to our prayers"
"We hope that the Senate will pass the law in an unchanged form, as it meets most of the demands businesspeople have made," says Henryka Bochniarz, president of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP). The chances for this are good, as all the major parties supported the law when it was voted on by the Sejm. However, some point out that most of the amendments rejected by deputies were proposed by Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) members, whose party has a clear majority in the Senate. Indeed, some think that the law could be changed or its implementation delayed by overzealous senators.
The law was hailed by all the major business organizations as the best thing to come out of this parliament, with the Business Center Club's Lobbying Institute saying in a statement that the legislative process related to the law was unusual with regard to the attention paid to the demands of the business community. And the results are there for all to see.
For a start, the new law will simplify the procedures for registering a new business. According to a recent World Bank report, the average time it takes to register a business in this country is currently 31 days, one of the worst results in the EU. This, says the report, stifles entrepreneurship and small business growth. The new law promises to cut the time to just a few days, hopefully to less than a week, said Małgorzata Okońska-Zaremba, Deputy Minister for Economy and Labor, who was in charge of the project.
Another important change envisioned by the law is that all state agencies will only be allowed to conduct one audit at a time in any given firm. This, coupled with the limit of eight weeks on the duration of each audit (and just half that for small enterprises) comes as a relief for firms plagued by perennial tax office harassment.
"Our accounting costs went through the roof and operations were disrupted by never-ending audits designed to force the company into paying income taxes," said an executive at a major international retailer. The company endured continued harassment from the tax authorities when it recorded losses in the first years of operations here, though the executive revealed that the situation has since improved.
Last but not least is the clause that a business will be able to demand a binding interpretation of the law and will not have to bear the consequences of a possible mistake by the authorities. This part of the law met with a particularly warm reaction from the PKPP's Bochniarz, who described it as "an answer to our prayers." It remains to be seen, though, whether the gods will continue to look favorably on this particular law.
The law was hailed by all the major business organizations as the best thing to come out of this parliament, with the Business Center Club's Lobbying Institute saying in a statement that the legislative process related to the law was unusual with regard to the attention paid to the demands of the business community. And the results are there for all to see.
For a start, the new law will simplify the procedures for registering a new business. According to a recent World Bank report, the average time it takes to register a business in this country is currently 31 days, one of the worst results in the EU. This, says the report, stifles entrepreneurship and small business growth. The new law promises to cut the time to just a few days, hopefully to less than a week, said Małgorzata Okońska-Zaremba, Deputy Minister for Economy and Labor, who was in charge of the project.
Another important change envisioned by the law is that all state agencies will only be allowed to conduct one audit at a time in any given firm. This, coupled with the limit of eight weeks on the duration of each audit (and just half that for small enterprises) comes as a relief for firms plagued by perennial tax office harassment.
"Our accounting costs went through the roof and operations were disrupted by never-ending audits designed to force the company into paying income taxes," said an executive at a major international retailer. The company endured continued harassment from the tax authorities when it recorded losses in the first years of operations here, though the executive revealed that the situation has since improved.
Last but not least is the clause that a business will be able to demand a binding interpretation of the law and will not have to bear the consequences of a possible mistake by the authorities. This part of the law met with a particularly warm reaction from the PKPP's Bochniarz, who described it as "an answer to our prayers." It remains to be seen, though, whether the gods will continue to look favorably on this particular law.
