Components of the Polish aid package

by Marcin Muchowski
19 March 2020

The Polish government proposed on 18 March 2020 its solutions under the anti-crisis programme (so-called Anti-Crisis Shield). The package includes solutions designed to help enterprises to cope with the epidemic-related difficulties. Below you will find the main components of the programme.

The government is planning to draft legislative bills including the details of the new solutions by 22 March 2020. We will inform you about the programme’s main components as soon as the relevant statutes are published.

The Anti-Crisis Shield has five pillars:

• Employees’ security – PLN 30 billion in allocated funds.
• State aid for enterprises – PLN 74.2 billon in allocated funds.
• Healthcare – PLN 7.5 billon in allocated funds.
• Strengthening of the financial system – PLN 70.3 billion in allocated funds.
• Public investment programme – PLN 30 billion in allocated funds.

Total allocated funds – PLN 212 billion.

The key measures are as follows:

1.  As regards the protection of employees

• Subsidised wages in companies which suffer a drop in turnover:

   * 40% of wages (up to the national average in 2019) to be covered by the state; 
   * 40% of wages (up to the national average in 2019) to be covered by the employer; 
   * in effect, employees will receive gross wages of 80% of the national average in 2019, which means that some employees will earn less.

• State aid for people hired on civil law contracts in the amount of about PLN 2 thousand gross.
• The entitlement to the additional care allowance for parents who take care of children up to the age of 8 has been extended for another 14 days if educational facilities remain closed (as already announced by the minister of education). The additional allowance will be paid for 28 days.
• Deadline for filing PIT returns has been extended until the end of May. Deadline for payment of PIT has been postponed without any additional charges (i.e. late payment interest and postponement fee equal to 50% of the interest on the postponed tax amount, according to standard rate).

2. As regards the protection of businesses:

• Medium-sized and large enterprises may obtain from the PFR Investments fund money to increase the share capital or financing in the form of bonds – money for this purpose totals PLN 6 billion.
• Loan subsidies from Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego – PLN 500 million available for enterprises.
• Support from Agencja Rozwoju Przemysłu to refinance leasing agreements for transportation companies.
• 100 thousand SMEs will be offered loans with a de minimis warranty up to PLN 3.5 million.
• Entities which award contracts through public tender procedures will not charge penalties for delays in contract performance.
• KUKE commercial trade insurance to be available on preferential terms.
• Protection of businesses and consumers from excessive rise in prices and unfair practices. Competent authorities are to take active steps to eliminate the overpricing of deficit goods.
• Residence visas and temporary residence permits for foreigners will be extended.
• The expiry date of periodical medical clearance certificates will be extended.
• For micro enterprises: 500,000 micro enterprises which hire up to 9 employees will have an opportunity to take out loans of PLN 5 thousand. The loans may be nonreturnable if certain conditions are met.
• Deadline for entry in the Central Register of Beneficial Owners has been postponed until 1 July 2020.
• Deadline for entry in the Waste Producers Database has been extended till the end of the year.

3. As regards the taxation of businesses

• Postponement of public levies (CIT, VAT, social insurance contributions) at the taxpayer’s request – no postponement fees or interest Note – postponement of taxes under the current regulations costs extra (postponement fee and interest). In order to eliminate those extra costs, it is necessary to apply for tax postponement after the anti-crisis package enters into force.
• The go-live date of the new SAF-T will be postponed until 1 July 2020.
• The entire tax loss incurred in 2020 may be set off in the amended tax return for 2019. This right will be granted to enterprises whose revenues will drop in 2020 by at least 50% compared to the revenues of 2019.
• The collection of the retail sales tax will be postponed until the end of the year.

The Minister of Finance said that he decided to postpone the deadlines for filing annual tax and information returns by 1 or 2 months (there is no final decision about the deadline extension period). However, no details in this respect have been published on the government's official websites as yet (there is only a note that the deadlines for filing annual PIT returns may be extended). We expect that this issue will be resolved in the legislative bills scheduled to be presented by the end of this week.

The government representatives have not addressed the deadline for filing financial statements for the last financial year. This issue should also be clarified in the statutes being worked on.

Our experts are following the communications of the Polish government to ensure that you are up-to-date with the measures taken in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. We will keep you updated on the key issues in this scope. As we have already mentioned, we will also discuss the planned legislative changes as soon as they are published.