Poland: MDR – new reporting deadlines during the corona epidemic

published on 8 May 2020 | reading time approx. 3 minutes

Tax scheme reporting deadlines have been suspended since 31 March 2020. Neither the taxpayers, nor their advisers have to report tax schemes at that time. The key regulations concerning all MDR forms are included in the anti-crisis legislation. The tax reporting obligations under MDR will be resumed once the state of epidemic emergency is called off, but they will not be suspended for longer than 30 June 2020.

Tax scheme reporting deadlines »
Obligations of promoters, users and supporters »
Special MDR-3 reporting deadlines for users »

Special regulations apply to MDR-3 forms which are used to report tax advantages for 2019. Two regulations of the Minister of Finance, under which the deadlines for filing CIT return and IFT-2 report are postponed until 31 May 2020, postpone automatically until that date also the deadline for filing MDR-3 form for CIT and WHT.

Tax scheme reporting deadlines

The so-called anti-crisis shield of 2 March 2020 includes provisions which postpone the tax scheme reporting deadlines.

The amended anti-crisis legislation of 31 March 2020 says that none of the deadlines start to run, and those which have, are suspended from 31 March 2020 until the day of calling off the state of epidemic emergency and the state of epidemic declared due to Covid-19, however, not longer than until 30 June 2020 (Article 31y of the anti-crisis legislation). At the same time, all acts performed by the Head of the National Tax Administration, promoters, users and supporters during the suspension period are valid and effective.

This means that the obliged entities may but do not have to act in the suspension period. On its website the Ministry of Finance published a communication concerning this change on 2 April 2020.

The Ministry explained that the suspension concerned in particular the deadlines for filing:

information about a tax scheme (MDR-1),
user’s information about a tax scheme (MDR-3),
quarterly information of the promoter about making a marketable arrangement available (MDR-4),
a notification concerning a tax scheme under Article 86b(6), Article 86d(3) and Article 86d(5) of the Tax Act (MDR-2).

The Ministry has emphasised that the rules apply both to cross-border schemes , and domestic schemes. The state of epidemic emergency was introduced in the regulation of the Minister of Health of 13 March 2020 and has been in force since 14 March 2020. It will be called off also by the Minister of Health in the form of a regulation.

Obligations of promoters, users and supporters

What do the above regulations mean for promoters, users and supporters? If the time limit for filing the form started to run before 31 March 2020 and did not expire on 31 March, its running is suspended. The obliged entity does not have to file the form in the suspension period. The time limit for reporting will resume to run only on the day when the state of epidemic is called off. However, if a reportable transaction took place after 31 March, the deadline does not start to run at all. It will not start until after the state of epidemic is called off.

As that date is not known, it is necessary to stay up-to-date with government information and press releases.

Special MDR-3 reporting deadlines for users

The anti-crisis shield is not the only piece of legislation that affects the reporting obligations. They are also affected by two regulations of the Minister of Finance on the postponement of deadlines for filing CIT returns and IFT-2 information returns. They are as follows:

the regulation of the Minister of Finance of 27 March 2020 on the extension of the deadline for filing the tax return on the amount of income earned (loss incurred) and payment of the due tax by entities subject to corporate income tax,
the regulation of the Minister of Finance of 31 March 2020 on the extension of the deadlines for preparation and filing selected information returns.

The regulations affect taxpayers whose fiscal year ended in the period from 1 December 2019 to 31 January 2020, so they apply in particular to taxpayers whose fiscal year is the same as the calendar year, and the deadline for filing CIT and IFT expired on 31 March 2020.

The deadlines for filing MDR-3 form, that is information on advantages derived from or transactions effected under the implemented tax scheme, are closely related to the deadlines postponed in the regulations. Therefore, special rules apply to filing of MDR-3 for advantages derived in 2019.

The regulations postpone the deadline for filing CIT returns (for most taxpayers) and IFT-2 reports (for all taxpayers) until 31 May 2020. As a result, the MDR-3 form for CIT schemes, including in terms of WHT, must be filed by 31 May this year at the latest. This deadline may be extended under the aforementioned anti-crisis legislation if the state of epidemic emergency is still in effect after that date, however, not longer than until 30 June 2020.

A special category of taxpayers who can file their CIT returns until 31 July 2020 are entities exempt from CIT and public benefit organisations. They are allowed to file the MDR-3 form for CIT until 31 July, excluding for WHT which they must file by 31 May.