Legal amnesia

Although the amendment to the Anti-Alcoholism Act came into effect on July 17, 2004 hardly anyone knows about it.

The law stipulates that companies who provide services related to advertisements of alcoholic products are obliged to pay a 10-percent income tax to the Sports Ministry. This refers to both big advertising companies as well as pubs or bars that put up a poster or use beer coasters with logos on them, regardless of whether the advertising is paid for or not.

For over a year just about everyone (including many tax-office employees) had simply forgotten that the amendment existed. The amendment was rediscovered only recently, after the Law and Justice (PiS) government split up the former Ministry of Education and Sport, and the newly created Sports Ministry began searching for all possible sources of income.

Ignorance of the law does not protect you from prosecution. Those who have not sent the tax to the Ministry should complete a tax statement and pay back the interest.

Pubs or shops are not yet ready to pay the tax but some advertising agencies have already managed to find a loophole in the law and pay tax on only 25 percent of their income. The rest is invoiced - tax deductible - as the cost of maintaining the ads.