MCI ready to fight for zł.40 million

Listed venture capital fund MCI Management had a 40.38-percent stake in JTT Computer when the company went out of business, after the tax authorities wrongly fined it for alleged VAT irregularities. MCI paid a penalty of zł.10 million only to be cleared of the charges by the Supreme Administrative Court. Now MCI is seeking damages of a maximum zł.40 million. The sum includes zł.30 million for lost profits and zł.10 million to compensate for JTT shares that MCI had to sell for zł.45,000, having earlier bought them for zł.10.2 million.

This week MCI will send the State Treasury a notice in which it will demand compensation. If the Treasury is not willing to pay, nor settle the issue amicably, MCI is ready to go to court.

"The will for an amicable settlement is great on our part," says Andrzej Lis, MCI's investment director. "But I don't really believe the State Treasury will admit that we're right; I haven't heard about such a case."

JTT exported computers produced in Poland to Slovakia and imported them back in order to avoid paying the 22-percent VAT as the tax rate on imported computers was zero. The tax authorities claimed that the company broke the law to get the VAT rebate and thus fined it.