Poland among the 10 most hostile to business jurisdictions
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Poland dropped to 10th place in the most recent ranking of the most complex jurisdictions in the world for doing business by foreign companies. This is the largest decrease among all 77 monitored countries, according to the latest edition of the Global Business Complexity Index (GBCI), a report prepared by the TMF Group. This company is offering business services in 85 countries (including Poland) in the area of accounting and taxes, human resources and payroll, and corporate secretarial management.
The GBCI study analyzes regulations, tax rates, penalties, and compliance issues in 77 jurisdictions, which account for 92 percent of total world GDP and 95 percent of global flows of foreign direct investment. The report annually checks 292 metrics on key aspects of running a business, including the speed of starting a business, wage and benefit requirements, and the like.
The most hostile jurisdiction for multinational companies to do business is Brazil. France is closely behind, relegated from 12th place. Next are Mexico, Colombia, Turkey, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and Poland.
In turn, Denmark, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, and Ireland turned out to be the friendliest jurisdictions.
Why has Poland fallen so much? The problem is primarily the instability and ambiguity of our law, and the legal chaos has been further aggravated this year by the pandemic.
“Legal regulations in Poland often change quickly, leaving companies little time to react and implement changes. This situation was exacerbated during the pandemic, in which the government responded to a dynamically changing situation. For example, the introduction and lifting of the lockdown happened quickly, while the law changed in response to the pandemic remained in force (e.g. economic aid packages), which caused confusion as to which rules were applicable at any given time," the authors of the report wrote.
In addition, the authors pointed to a problem with the acceptance of electronic signatures in Poland.
