AmCham Poland’s consultations on the Deregulation Bill

The Ministry of Development and Technology invited AmCham to consultations on the draft bill amending certain acts to deregulate economic and administrative law and improve the principles of drafting economic law (Deregulation Bill). This long-awaited Deregulation Bill aims to simplify the laws regulating business in Poland. The bill applies to all entrepreneurs operating in Poland, but some of its provisions may be of special interest to foreign investors. In particular, the proposed act implements many of the postulates presented by AmCham in recent years, primarily in the area of standards for rule-making process and guarantees for regulatory stability.

The bill contains many loosely related amendments to 35 laws in economic and administrative law. Their common aim is to deregulate economic activity and simplify procedures. The most significant changes include:

• The introduction of the principle of balancing administrative obligations (one in, one out) into business law, according to which the removal of an equal number of obligations should balance the imposition of new obligations on entrepreneurs;
• Introducing the principle that laws defining business rules should have a vacatio legis of at least 6 months;
• Repeal of a provision of the Tax Code which allowed tax offices to extend the period for pursuing tax debts by instituting criminal tax proceedings against individuals acting in companies;
• Introduction of a requirement for inspectors to provide a preliminary list of expected information and documents before starting an inspection at a company;
• Deregulation of the process of setting up small wind power plants;
• Extension of the scope of the tax relief for research and development;
• Introduction of electronic bills of exchange;
• Easing the start-up of a business.

If you have any comments on the Deregulation Bill you would like to provide through AmCham, please send them in Polish by April 26 to [email protected].

Secretary of State at the Ministry of Development and Technology, Jacek Tomczak, is responsible for developing the bill. During a meeting with AmCham in February, Deputy Minister Tomczak announced that he was very open to working with the members of the Chamber. This provides even more reason to encourage comments, hoping they will be considered during further legislative work.