21:03 19 October 2021
‘The Polish tax system is one of the worst in the OECD’: Tax Foundation
Among the 37 tax systems of the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Polish system was in the penultimate place, only Italy achieved a worse result. According to the authors of the International Tax Competitiveness Index, the biggest problem of the Polish tax system is that it is complicated. Poland also performs poorly in terms of the tax base for taxing consumption.
"The Achilles heel of the Polish tax system turns out to be complexity. While for the height of the wedge in the case of taxation of legal and natural persons, Poland was ranked 5th and 6th, respectively (relatively weak in the case of taxation of consumption – 28th place), in terms of complexity, its places are: 28th (corporate taxation), 30th (taxation of natural persons) and 37th (taxation of consumption). Poland fares poorly in terms of the tax base for taxation of consumption, which is related to the existence of a wide range of reduced VAT rates," the founders of the International Tax Competitiveness Index assessed.
Moreover, the index does not take into account the aspect that is particularly acute for Polish taxpayers – the volatility of regulations and the uncertainty related to their adoption. Tax regulations in Poland are modified every now and then, which officially is often meant to "patch" the gaps.
