Government moves to reduce z.ł5 billion losses from profit transfers abroad

The government has acted to make good on a pre-election promise that it would investigate the transfer of profits abroad by foreign companies. Some parent companies have been accused of overcharging their Polish subsidiaries in order to bring down their profit figures and thus reduce the amount of tax they pay. Such activities, according to an estimate by the Finance Ministry, cost the budget zl.5 billion a year. To deal with the problem, the Ministry is setting up two special fiscal chambers to investigate and control the price setting, profit transfer and tax payment of foreign companies. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 26) M.K.