Accounting

As usual, in December, entrepreneurs think about how much the changes in the regulations that will come into force from January of the new year will affect their tax settlement and operations. To make it easier for you to find yourself in the maze of regulations introduced by the new Polish Deal (and not only), we have prepared a quick summary. Here are the most important changes in the law that will affect doing business in Poland in 2023.

According to tax regulations, if our company purchases a vehicle from an EU Member State, it is an intra-community acquisition of goods. This creates additional obligations that we must fulfil as entrepreneurs. And regardless of whether we have decided to buy a used passenger car or a new one, we must prepare a VAT-23 declaration and prepare to pay VAT.

The end of the year is approaching fast, and for most businesses it means they need to close their accounts and prepare their financial statements. Unfortunately, this year there may be some trouble around the corner: due to exceeding predefined thresholds, many organisations will be burdened with additional obligations arising from the requirement to have their financial statements audited by a statutory auditor.

Poland is introducing regulations that will impose new reporting obligations on digital platform operators. Sellers should also pay attention to these changes, as they can expect more inspections to be carried out by tax authorities in order to verify the correctness of tax settlements.

With the end of the old year and the advent of the new one, some business owners and chief accountants are considering changing the accounting software. It is a difficult decision and not only does it have serious consequences in terms of tax settlements, but also often involves high costs of purchasing a licence and implementing appropriate software. 

When onboarding a new client to your accounting firm, a member of your staff dedicated to support this particular entrepreneur should focus on many things, starting from building a good relationship to implementing proper procedures that will help identify specific needs your client has.

On 18-20 September 2019, the Radisson Blu hotel in Szczecin hosted the Polish National Congress of Accounting Chairs organised by the Institute of Accounting of the University of Szczecin. RSM Poland was represented by Sebastian GOSCHORSKI, Accounting&Payroll Partner, who attended a debate on the certification of accounting professionals.

When reviewing financial statements for the year 2014, I could not escape the thought that the National Accounting Standard No. 9 (referred to as NAS 9) 'Director's Report' did not result in any visible improvement in the quality of the elaborated documents. You may still come across reports that are roughly one page long, based on financial data from only two years or simply information that has been pasted straight from the financial statement, perhaps with a little comment saying 'increase/decrease by so and so', without any kind of detailed clarification as to the root cause of such changes. Obviously, this is not to say that the management report should be revealing company business secrets. Still, a more comprehensive approach may be expected here, with the information provided allowing the reader to assess the company's actual condition.

Operating a business is inevitably related to the obligation to operate a full accounting system. An enterprise may keep the accounts on its own or by hiring an accounting firm. The most often method to satisfy this obligation is to keep the accounts in the form of a revenue and expense ledger (PKPiR), i.e. so-called simplified accounting. The second method requiring more efforts and costlier is the full accounting system. Therefore, it is worth knowing what entities are obliged to operate such full accounting system and how one could prepare to do it.

Business transactions conducted by taxpayers require appropriate documentation. That is a reason for keeping tax books. They constitute an evidence for proper accounting and they should, therefore, reflect the actual state. Only reliably and correctly kept books may be considered an evidence in the case of tax proceedings pending before tax authorities.