Advanced search
Publication Cover
World Journal of VAT/GST Law Volume 3, 2014 - Issue 3
Journal homepage
36
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Polish landscape in the area of VAT rates for foodstuffs from the perspective of the neutrality principle

Maria Kukawska Partners and licensed tax advisors at Stone & Feather Tax Advisory, Warsaw, Poland.
&
Mariusz Machciński Partners and licensed tax advisors at Stone & Feather Tax Advisory, Warsaw, Poland.
Pages 201-209 | Published online: 07 May 2015

  • Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax [2006] OJ L347/1.
  • Ustawa z dnia 11 marca 2004 r o podatku od towarów i usług (Value Added Tax Act of 11 March 2004) tj z dnia 29 lipca 2011 r DzU z 2011 r Nr 177 poz 1054 ze zm.
  • Rozporządzenie Rady Ministrów z dnia 29.10.2008 r w sprawie Polskiej Klasyfikacji Wyrobów i Usług (Council of Ministers Regulation on the Polish Classification of Goods and Services of 29 October 2009) Dz U z 2008 r nr 207 poz 1293 nr 220 poz 1435 oraz z 2009 r nr 33 poz 256 i nr 222 poz 1753.
  • PCGS regulation was issued based on the authorisation in the Public Statistics Act.
  • Nomenclature statistique des Activités économiques dans la Communauté Européene (Regulation (EU) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains [2006] (OJ L393/1) required EU Member States to adapt NACE Rev 2 into statistical classification systems).
  • Classification of Products by Activity (Regulation (EC) No 451/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 establishing a new statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93 [2008] (OJ L145/65), required EU Member States to adopt the Classification of Product by Activity CPA 2008 into statistical classification systems).
  • Combined Nomenclature (Commission Regulation (EC) No 1549/2006 of 17 October 2006 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff [2006] (OJ L301/1) introduced the Combined Nomenclature 2007).
  • The Central Statistical Office has published on its website a very limited selection of statistical classifications issued over recent years.
  • The Director of the Customs Chamber in Warsaw wields sole authority in issuing binding tariff information decisions in Poland. BTI classifies goods in terms of the CN for foreign trade purposes.
  • In this respect, it is evident that either the classification methodology used by the Statistical Office or the PCGS used for domestic sales purposes, results in not meeting the requirement set in Article 94, para 2 of the VAT Directive (the VAT rate applicable to the importation of goods should be likewise applied to the supply of those goods in the territory of the Member State).
  • The CN is a classification which is applied EU-wide for foreign trade purposes. It is comprised of the Harmonised System (HS) nomenclature with further EU-specific subdivisions. The HS is a developed by the World Customs Organisation.
  • This CN category is phrased as ‘Bread, not containing added honey, eggs, cheese or fruit, and containing by weight in the dry matter state not more than 5% of sugars and not more than 5% of fat'; let us assume this type of bread is exactly what is classified by the Polish statistical authorities as PCGS 10.71.11.
  • Other examples of products where disputes as to the correct VAT rates arise include: juices; spices; sauces; or snacks. For example, snacks such as potato crisps are subject to 8% VAT whereas crisps made from potato starch are subject to 23% VAT, crisps made from wheat flour which are extruded are subject to 5% VAT rate, crisps made from wheat or corn flour which are baked then fried (eg tortilla chips) are subject to 23% VAT.
  • An example of a typical tax law interpretation where the correctness of the VAT rate is confirmed solely based on the PCGS classification of the product given by the Statistical Office includes interpretation no IPPP3/443–331/12–2/KT dated 22 June 2012.
  • Provincial Administrative Court in Krakow case no I SA/Kr 1878/12 dated 5 February 2013.
  • The CJEU in this paragraph also referred to Case C-481/98 Commission v France ECLI:EU:C:2001:237, para 27, and, by analogy, Joined Cases C-367/93 to C-377/93 FG Roders BV v Inspecteur der Invoerrechten en Accijnzen ECLI:EU:C:1995:261 [1995] ECR I-2229, para 27, and Case C-302/00 Commission v France [2002] ECR I-2055, para 23.
  • Supreme Administrative Court case no I FSK 1147/13 dated 7 November 2013.
  • Provincial Administrative Court in Warszawa case no III SA/Wa 3181/12 dated 14 May 2013.
  • Roders and Others (n 16).
  • Supreme Administrative Court case no I FSK 1651/13 dated 22 October 2014.
  • At the time of writing, no justification (motives of the verdict) was presented.
  • Supreme Administrative Court case no I FSK 697/12 dated 28 January 2013.
  • Provincial Administrative Court in Bydgoszcz case no I SA/Bd 815/11 dated 21 December 2011.
  • Commission v Germany ECLI:EU:C:2003:586 [2003] ECR I-12691.
  • Christiane Urbing-Adam v Administration de l'enregistrement et des domains ECLI:EU:C:2001:534 [2001] ECR I-07467.
  • Commission v France ECLI:EU:C:2001:237 [2001] ECR I-03369.
  • Supreme Administrative Court case no I FSK 827/12 dated 16 May 2013 (this ruling was preceded by a ruling of the Provincial Administrative Court in Gdańsk in case no I SA/Gd 1141/11 dated 25 January 2012.
  • Case C-442/05 Zweckverband zur Trinkwasserversorgung und Abwasserbeseitigung Torgau-Westelbien ECLI:EU:C:2008:184 [2008] ECR I-1817, para 44.
  • Case 219/13 K Oy [2014] ECLI:EU:C:2014:2207, para 31.
  • Lees of Scotland & Thomas Tunnock v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 630 TC [18].
  • The authors remark, that the European Commission is apparently investigating the Polish VAT rates with respect to bread and pastry products (as reported in May 2014 in the daily newspaper by M Szulc, A Pokojska, ‘Gorzki problem z VAT od słodkości’ (‘Bitter VAT issue on sweets') [2014] Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, http://podatki.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/799103,gorzki-problem-z-vat-od-slodkosci.html?utm_source=FreshMail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fm_2014–05–26%20-%20zewn (26 May 2014).
  • Joined cases C-453/02 and C-462/02 Finanzamt Gladbeck v Edith Linneweber (C-453/02) and Finanzamt Herne-West Savvas Akritidis (C-462/02) ECLI:EU:C:2005:92 [1995] ECR I-02229 Opinion of AG Stix-Hackl dated 8 July 2004.
  • ibid, para 51 (emphasis added).
  • Commission v France (n 16), para 23.
  • Roders and Others (n 16), para 27.
  • Commission v France (n 16), para 24.
  • Roders and Others (n 16), para 40.
  • Joined Cases C-443/04 and C-444/04 Solleveld and van den Hout-van Eijnsbergen [2006] ECR I-3617, para 35.
  • See M Chądzyński, G Osiecki, ‘Rząd przelicza nowe stawki VAT. Czeka nas obniżka do 21 procent?’ (‘The Government recalculates new VAT rates. Is the decrease to 21% in store?’) [2014] Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, http://biznes.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/803227,rzad-przelicza-nowe-stawki-vat-czeka-nas-obnizka-do-21-procent.html (12 July 2014).
  • See M Chądzyński, G Osiecki, ‘Grozi nam deflacja, ale poradzimy sobie z nią lepiej niż Zachód—wywiad z Mateuszem Szczurkiem' (‘There is a deflation menace but we will manage it better than the Western Europe—an interview with Mateusz Szczurek [the Polish Minister of Finance—authors' remark]), [2014] Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, http://forsal.pl/artykuly/808706,grozi-nam-deflacja-ale-poradzimy-sobie-z-nia-lepiej-niz-zachod-wywiad-z-mateuszem-szczurkiem.html (9 July 2014).
  • Rita de la Feria, Blueprint for reform of VAT rates in Europe [2014] Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation WP 13/14, September 2014, 18–31 https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ideas-impact/tax/publications/workingpapers-0/blueprint-reform-vat-rates-europe (accessed 20 October 2014).
  • ibid, 27–30.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Order Reprints Request Corporate Permissions

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

Request Academic Permissions

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.

Supercharge Your Next Research Paper: Research and write your next paper with Jenni AI.

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.