International distributors attack new Polish retail tax law

From 1 August, Poland will tax supermarket revenue, based on a progressive tax rate: distributors with a turnover above PLN 170 million (EUR 38.3 million) will have to pay a 1.4% tax. Companies below PLN 17 million (EUR 3.8 million) are exempt.

In between these two thresholds, the tax level is 0.8%.

The so-called "supermarket tax" has to "guarantee equal rights and opportunities for small Polish entrepreneurs compared to the major parties", Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło said, admitting the tax will mostly hit the major distributors who all happen to be foreign companies.

“We oppose this discriminatory project,” said Maria Andrzej Faliński, chairman of the Polish trade federation (POHiD), which represents companies like French groups Auchan, Carrefour, Castorama and E.Leclerc, German distributors Kaufland, Lidl and Metro and Portuguese Jeronimo Martins and British Tesco.

European retailers such as Jeronimo Martins, Carrefour and Auchan, will pay about EUR 360 million a year.

Online shops and several items (like healthcare items and several food items) are exempt from taxation.

POHiD plans to use "all legal and institutional means" to fight the legislation.

According to French press agency AFP, Faliński said it was aimed at an industry that has invested EUR 50 billion in Poland and created employment for some 200,000 people.

The article was provided by Central European Financial Observer: