SSW Expert on Succession Management

Łukasz Karpiesiuk comments in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (The Daily Legal Newspaper) on the issue of VAT taxation in the event of company succession. In this regard, Łukasz and the team successfully represented our client before the Provincial Administrative Court – more information on this topic [LINK].

“I hope that the verdict of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw will initiate a permanent jurisprudence, all the more so as the court directly referred to the previous jurisprudence of the Supreme Administrative Court from the period before the entry into force of the Act on succession management.

The tax authorities incorrectly tried to justify the literal application of article 14 paragraph 1 point 3 of the CJEU case-law regarding the transfer of assets from business activities to private property (according to which such a transfer should be treated as consumption). In this case, however, it was quite clear that the goods purchased inherited would still be used in taxable activities. So there is no question of consumption (which should be subject to VAT). There is a growing concern that VAT must be neutral for the entrepreneur.

Therefore, I am very pleased that the fundamental principle of VAT neutrality, resulting from the directive, is applied as part of the community interpretation in the jurisprudence of Polish courts, which in this case allowed the court to “fix” the imprecise provisions of the Act on Succession Management to some extent.”

The full article is available on the pages of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.