Poland quits idea of higher retail taxation on Saturday

Cabinet Minister Henryk Kowalczyk told public broadcaster TVP1 that the government has resigned from introducing a higher tax rate for Saturday sales in the retail tax bill and is still mulling over whether to maintain it for Sundays or not. "We withdrew from taxing Saturdays," Kowalczyk said of the tax currently in consultations. "As for Sundays, we leave ourselves room for negotiation." In a previous version of the bill, the government called for  a sales tax on all retailers with monthly revenues over PLN 1.5 million, with a 0.7 percent fee on revenues up to PLN 300 million, and 1.3 percent above that figure. For weekends, the fee would rise to 1.3 percent for business with revenues of up to PLN 300 million, and 1.9 percent above. The government estimated that such a tax could bring in an additional PLN 2 billion in budgetary income in 2016.