Advisory

How can an employer grant an employee unpaid leave? And who is entitled to such unpaid leave? Most employees are familiar with the most popular types of leaves and have at least once in their lives used the days of holiday leave guaranteed by the Labour Code, took leave on request, training leave, parental leave or special leave. However, taking a few days off unpaid is something that both employees and employers often remain wary of. How to approach this topic and what should we know about it?

Business activity is continuously connected with foreseeing the future. It is exactly the future, and not the present conditions that decides about success of any enterprise. Whether the enterprise will turn out to be profitable and succeed on the market will result from its ability to foresee prevailing conditions on a widely understood market in the following years. What growth rate will be like, whether the branch of our interest will have to face aggressive competition, how consumer tastes and attitudes will change, in what legal environment we will have to function? Such questions can be multiplied endlessly. What therefore can we do to improve the quality of formulated economic forecasts, and, at the same time, to increase chances of achieving goals established before we start a business venture?

Nobody will deny that the history of Poland and Germany was very turbulent. It’s a bit similar to the situation of a typical married couple – there were moments of very harmonious cooperation but (sometimes long-lasting) silent days as well… Over the years, on both banks of the Oder we have gathered a number of stereotypes about each other. We are slowly trying to defy them – the most effective way is to do business together.

The completeness of company registration procedure is of material importance for entrepreneurs wishing to start up their business in Poland. From 1 December 2014, new regulations that are supposed to simplify the registration process of the entity into the tax office and the Statistical Office, came into force. Indeed, from then on, once the company is entered into the register of entrepreneurs of the National Court Register,  it is also entered into the register of taxpayers (receives a NIP) and, at the same time, granted the National Business Registry Number (Polish REGON). Entrepreneurs can finally start operating.

It is evident that in the free-market economy, especially in branches with low entry barriers such as consulting, a customer has a special position. It is our client who, as a buyer of goods and services, determines the success, or failure, of  business we – professional advisors and consultants, run.

It often happens that before the optimization begins, we need to solve problems related to mentality differences – and this is when the huge value added of cooperation with German Desk can be demonstrated.

Company valuation is a topic most managers and owners are likely to face at some point in running their large-sized businesses. The study is usually elaborated in connection with a prospective company acquisition/sale transaction, allotment of an organised part of the company into the structures of a new entity, or in relation to conditions imposed by regulations on financial review. These are, of course, only some examples – the list of circumstances that require or simply contribute to preparing a professional company valuation is much longer.

Choosing the right business form is of uttermost importance to every entrepreneur. Therefore, before you make the decision it is advisable to learn about all the resulting consequences. If you happen to be a Polish entrepreneur, the task seems rather simple (at least in theory): you browse the Internet (thousands of posts, but which ones are credible?), check on friends and their experiences, and finally there’s a phone call to the Companies House to check out the mundane side of starting a business (what forms need to be submitted, where to pay your fees and how much?).

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of attending classes in programming almost certainly had the chance to plumb the mysteries of a programming language known as Turbo Pascal. If so, the phrase in the title of our first post surely sounds familiar. "Hello World" – the words our very first "programme" would usually display on the monitor of our computer. Back then, these two words meant the beginning of an adventure with a new, inspiring tool that would offer tremendous opportunities, namely programming. What better title could there be to celebrate the start of an adventure that may perhaps be different, but still as fascinating and inviting: an adventure with transfer pricing.

From a board member's point of view, an entrepreneur's or that of a foreigner delegated to develop the company's branch in Poland, the subject question is of fundamental meaning. The answer, as is often the case with taxes, is unambiguous. It all depends on how apt you are to take on extra risks and how much spare time you may allow yourself to spend on solving tax riddles…