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Tax services tailored to your needs
Hundreds of invoices each month both issued for and issued by local and foreign businesses. Tax-exempted transactions, differently tax rated transactions, Intra-Community transactions, and import business – in such a maze of external conditions and economic events, crucial for proper VAT settlement, it is easy to make a mistake that might generate quite substantial additional costs for a business.
Thanks to the VAT compliance service and the support of RSM Poland advisors, you no longer have to wonder about the rules on which your company should settle VAT in Poland. The role of our clients is limited to sending us source documents – we take care of the rest. We verify the correctness of the documents sent, prepare the relevant VAT registers, and submit the appropriate declaration to the tax office.
What is VAT Compliance and why is it worth using advisory support in the field of VAT?
International VAT Compliance service is an increasingly popular solution, used especially readily by foreign taxpayers who are registered in Poland only for VAT purposes.
Outsourcing of VAT settlements is a comprehensive service consisting of assistance in implementing Polish regulations regarding tax on goods and services in the company and continuous support in meeting the obligations arising from them. An entrepreneur who cooperates with RSM Poland and is subject to VAT can adjust the VAT Compliance support services to his own needs and expectations and receives all the data necessary to be included in the company's books of accounts. The assistance we provide in this way in the field of tax settlements requires only minimal involvement of the client's employees, which translates into lower costs of the Polish part of the business.
Thanks to VAT Compliance, the entrepreneur no longer has to bear the costs of employing his own employees and ensure that they are trained each time VAT changes are introduced in Poland. Customers of RSM Poland incur costs depending only on the number of documents provided and the actual working time of experts devoted to the preparation of VAT settlements or communication with the tax office.
Our services include both domestic and international VAT Compliance. As part of advisory support in the field of VAT:
- we guide you through the registration process for VAT/VAT-EU purposes,
- we keep VAT registers (and on the basis of the information and documents provided we calculate VAT resulting from completed transactions),
- we prepare and send tax returns and summary information to the tax office,
- if necessary, we carry audit processes and implement them for e-invoicing using KSeF (National System of e-Invoices),
- we support in obtaining a VAT refund,
- we support during verification activities, tax inspections and tax proceedings.
Outsourcing of VAT settlements – benefits for the entire organisation
- your company does not have to adapt or change the financial or accounting software for the purposes of VAT settlement,
- you avoid potential disputes with tax authorities resulting from misunderstanding the Polish regulations,
- you minimise the costs of training your employees on the Polish tax law and VAT changes introduced by the regulations.
- you gain access to the professional knowledge of experienced experts specialized in the field of Polish tax law,
- in case of problems, you can use the services of ongoing tax consulting in the field of VAT settlements.
- full scope of VAT Compliance allows you to focus fully on your core business,
- thanks to specialists experienced in contacts with the Polish tax office, you improve the process of settling Polish VAT,
- make the necessary digitization of settlements easier and faster (ViDA, e-invoicing),
- using the services of RSM – an international consulting company – you can efficiently establish cooperation with tax advisors from other countries,
- by using an external team, you gain an objective view of the company's business – as well as a broad perspective guaranteed by the specialization in VAT settlements and the cooperation of our experts with many industries,
- you relieve employees of your internal accounting departments.
- you receive support offered by qualified tax advisors,
- you can be sure of secure data transmission.
Is the accounting team enough to avoid irregularities in VAT settlements?
The economic reality is becoming more and more complex, and, as a result, so is the tax legislation. Specific tax areas in the organisation require specialized support, which means that people working in accounting are no longer able to be experts in everything.
From the perspective of people dealing with accounting in a company, the biggest advantages of outsourcing VAT settlements include:
- the ability to focus entirely on bookkeeping and reporting for internal purposes,
- departure from the need for in-depth analysis of tax regulations,
- gaining a person who takes over the obligation to contact the tax authorities.
The matter becomes even more complicated when the company carries out activities subject to VAT in another country. Then there is a need to adapt to foreign regulations in the field of VAT Compliance.
Internal accounting may not be able to properly register VAT (and then settle this tax) in another country due to differences in tax law and language barriers. Thanks to VAT Compliance, neither this nor even ongoing contact with foreign tax authorities will be a problem.
Avoid VAT fraud: what is the tax carousel?
The tax carousel is a popular way to extort VAT from the state budget and is a tax fraud based on a chain of fictitious supplies from several to even several dozen entities. The carousel mechanism, which uses the practice of missing taxpayers, is - due to the high VAT rate compared to other European countries - a tax crime often committed in Poland.
Entities involved in the VAT carousel scheme may face criminal, penal-fiscal and financial liability, including: refusal to deduct input tax, double VAT liability and additional VAT sanctions.
Entities that are in a higher risk group and must be particularly careful not to become entangled in the tax carousel mechanism are companies whose activities concern:
- easy to transport goods with high unit value and small size,
- goods such as fuels, electronics, metals and scrap,
- automotive, construction, food and electronics industries,
and entities whose activity consists - at least partially - in the purchase and resale of goods, having many contractors, at least some of whom rotate.
A tool that is intended to serve the taxpayer to avoid getting entangled in the carousel mechanism is the so-called due diligence procedure. The entrepreneur using it should perform a preliminary verification of the contractor each time at the beginning of cooperation, as well as periodically. It is necessary to take into account the increasingly frequent examples of tax fraud using an entity with an established position on the market.
When examining a contractor, special attention should be paid to the following elements:
- no economic risk of the transaction and a non-market price of goods that is not justified;
- unjustified change in the contractor's industry;
- questionable payment terms - cash payment, artificial splitting of payments above PLN 15,000, payment to a bank account outside the so-called white list, failure to apply the mandatory split payment mechanism;
- the apparent nature of the contractor's business activity, lack of appropriate technical and organizational support, lack of presence of a given taxpayer on the Internet.
As part of the VAT Compliance service, we offer an individual approach to each client and we work on source documents, which allows us to identify and monitor potential threats in the area of your business. In case of any doubts, we offer additional advice aimed at mitigating risk, including activities helping to design and implement internal due diligence procedures.
VAT settlements in Poland
The decision to start a business in Poland usually results in the need to register for Polish VAT. For foreign entrepreneurs who do not know either the Polish tax law or the Polish language, both the registration itself and subsequent current tax settlements are usually quite a challenge.
Dynamically changing regulations and changes in VAT introduced by the Polish government (mainly in terms of increasingly extensive and detailed reporting) pose a barrier to foreign entrepreneurs that make it difficult to focus on the subject of their business activity.
Preparing the necessary data on time – and constantly updating knowledge in the VAT area – can involve a disproportionately high degree. For such entities, the ideal solution is to use the VAT Compliance service, which consists in implementing Polish VAT regulations in the company and meeting the VAT payer's obligations towards tax authorities with the help of external specialists who are well acquainted with the VAT system in Poland.
Facts about VAT accounting in Poland
- In 2020, the Polish VAT settlement system was unfortunately rated as the most complex and time-consuming of all the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
- VAT in Poland is problematic for taxpayers, as evidenced by the fact that most individual interpretations concern this tax.
- VAT accounting is a sensitive area in any organisation, as practically all transactions are involved, it must be carried out continuously (every month) and it is most often audited by tax authorities.
- Poland is one of the leaders in introducing digitization of VAT settlements as part of the European ViDA (VAT in Digital Age) project – Polish VAT settlements may be your first experience with, for example, e-invoicing.
What is the full scope of VAT Compliance support?
- We guide clients through the registration process for VAT/VAT-EU purposes;
- We keep VAT registers based on the data and documentation we receive and submit tax returns and information;
- We help clients in the VAT refund process;
- We contact the tax authorities and provide the necessary information in the case of verification activities, tax inspections, and tax proceedings;
- We provide the necessary assistance in the field of tax consultancy – if problems are identified in the company that go beyond the scope of VAT Compliance services.
