Hundreds of billions in uncollected taxes in Poland 2008-2015: report

Losses to public coffers as a result of tax evasion and failure to close loopholes in the system from 2008 to 2015 came to at least PLN 400 billion (EUR 92.8 billion, USD 106.4 billion), a tax advisory firm has said in a report that a parliamentary committee unveiled on Monday.

Janusz Szewczak, an MP for Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and deputy head of the parliamentary committee on public finances, said the report by the Tax Studies Institute added up to a long list of accusations against the country’s previous authorities, which he said turned a blind eye to "massive robbery” of public coffers and failed to take action to stop money from leaking out of the tax system.

Beata Mazurek, a deputy lower-house Speaker and press spokeswoman for Poland’s ruling conservatives, said the country’s current government was effectively clamping down on tax fraud and evasion, leading to higher tax revenue and more money to benefit citizens.

A study released late last year found that Poland’s conservative government was effectively cracking down on tax evasion.

A special parliamentary commission in the summer launched a probe into suspected cases of VAT and excise tax fraud under Poland’s previous Civic Platform-led administration, which governed Poland from 2007 to 2015.

The Tax Studies Institute is a tax advisory firm based in the southern city of Kraków. It is run by Witold Modzelewski, one of the architects of Poland’s value-added tax system and deputy finance minister from 1992 to 1996.

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Source: IAR