Eight years later and I'm off
For those of you that have still not heard, your tax columnist will be heading home to jolly old England in the summer and retiring from Polish-tax combat after eight years, of which six have been spent as a WBJ columnist.
As we head into the endgame, the winding-down columns will be my closing thoughts and reflections of developments in Poland's economy and tax environment over that time, and thoughts for the future.
I'm pleased to say though that "Tax Watch" will continue under new management, once my random musings have finally stopped. So, at the risk of sounding like an old fart, what was it like in the old days, daddy?
When I stepped off the plane on May 31, 1993, Warsaw was very different from now. But anyone who was here then would have their own recollections, and anyone who wasn't wouldn't be interested, so I won't go too much into that. What was very clear was how intense the pace of work and life was. New clients were coming through the door everyday and we had comparatively few people, with little in the way of experience, although tremendously bright and keen to learn.
The current personal income tax and corporate income tax laws had only been introduced at the beginning of 1992, and so there was a feeling of trying to understand what the laws meant, and what they were trying to achieve. There was nothing in the way of precedent or court cases as nothing had had the time to go that far through legal proceedings. VAT was on the verge of being introduced, and having come from a country with VAT, I was able to pose as a guru in this area for an indeterminate period.
My work has evolved since then. The main questions back then were of the how-does-it-work type, before they moved on to more complex issues of what the implications would be.
Looking back, I remember it as being exciting, the spirit of adventure was there. Nobody knew how things would develop, how long it would take, and it seemed that all things were possible. It was as if everyone, Polish and expatriate alike, was motivated more by a desire to make things work and get things happening, and not solely or exclusively by the scramble for personal enrichment even public officials.
In 1995, the Warsaw Business Journal was launched, and suddenly us foreigners in the dark about what was going on in the wider Polish business community had the chance to read about it, understand it and contribute to it.
Then, thanks to the WBJ business mixers, there emerged an international business community, other than company presidents going to the AmCham meetings, and a chance to feel a bit more part of it.
"Tax Watch" made its first faltering steps into the world in June 1995, in the 21st edition of the WBJ, when I answered a ringing phone to hear a voice on the other end saying: "It's Thom Barnhard, publisher of the Warsaw Business Journal. Would Arthur Andersen be interested in contributing an occasional column about tax issues?" I thought it was an idea that might keep me amused for six weeks or so. I never thought I'd still be writing it six years later, having never missed a deadline. Nor did I think I'd get to be Thom's tax adviser.
Then-editor Steve Kirkland helped me work on how to say what I wanted to say, just as legendary newshound editor David Reilly gave me the extra excitement of never knowing what the title to the column would be until it came out with such delights as "Grab some aspirin the tax season is upon us."
Slowly but surely "Tax Watch" became part of the fabric of expat tax life in Warsaw and with it came that feeling of having accomplished something when you show up at a party and see four people around the room whom you have helped to save millions of dollars over the years.
So why after all these years am I jacking it in? And why should I choose to head for Birmingham of all places? Well, I suppose there are several reasons.
First, the excitement seems to have gone a little. Seat-of-the-pants tax advice is fun for a while when there's no history or precedent, but impossible once life gets more complicated. And with that there is a limit to how effective you can really be working in translation. OK, I could have learned Polish, but when I got so far getting away without it, the motivation to improve it beyond the basics dimmed a little.
Also, the feeling of building something new seems to have faded. Changes are taking longer to start having an effect, and life in Warsaw feels caught between those things that are now so similar to the U.K. that you may as well be at home, and those things that are frustratingly different, and don't seem to be evolving.
Also, all these youngsters have been so well trained by us expats that the years of additional experience that we may have over them are becoming less important and have started becoming outweighed by things like language. My old colleague Patrick T. Burke said when he left a year ago that he was glad to be going when people still asked, "Why are you going," and not, "Why are you still here?" After he left, I started to see what he meant.
So the choice is to move somewhere more challenging and leverage this tremendous experience as an emerging markets expert, or to go home. And then a job popped up with my name on it in the Birmingham office and the choice was easy.
So I retire from the Warsaw office on May 25, eight years after starting, and resume work in Birmingham on Sept. 1. The intervening period is for using up my vacation time with the family and organizing the move.
Next time I'll look at some of the more interesting events and happenings, and then when I run out of things to write a column about, I will fade quietly into the sunset (although the chances of me doing anything quietly are minimal, I know). This is a big step for me and it's a little scary, but thanks to you, my appreciative readers, I've really enjoyed this time in Warsaw, and will remember it fondly forever.
Peter Ferrigno is a partner in the Warsaw office of Arthur Andersen.
