We wish to alert you to the Constitutional Court’s ruling dated 22 July 2020 (case no. K 4/19) published in the Journal of Laws on 4 August 2020.

As a reminder, in mid 2018, regulations to amend the rules of real estate tax treatment of wind farms with a retroactive effect since 1 January 2018 were adopted. Under the amended regulations favourable to taxpayers, real estate tax applied to the structural parts of the wind turbine only (as was the case until the end of 2016).

The Constitutional Court stated that the amended regulations which started to apply with a retroactive effect since 1 January 2008 do not comply with the Constitution and will lose effect 18 months after the ruling is published in the Journal of Laws.

The ruling brings about uncertainty for taxpayers since:

  • it is unclear whether finding retroactive amendments unconstitutional means that the real estate tax reduction should be considered unconstitutional with respect to the first half of 2018 or for the entire 2018 (as real estate tax is annual and in principle it may not be changed during the year),
  • it is unknown who will finally bear the losses suffered by local governments due to unconstitutional regulations – the taxpayers or the State Treasury as part of compensation for local governments (the latter option was suggested by the Constitutional Court in its verbal grounds).

For the time being there are no grounds in writing and it is unknown what changes the legislator will propose to make the disputable regulations compliant with the Constitution.

We will keep you up-to-date on any amendments in this respect.

If this issue pertains to your business and you are interested in our assistance, please contact your WTS&SAJA consultant.

Doradztwo Podatkowe WTS&SAJA Sp. z o.o.

Bałtyk Building, 13th floor

ul. Roosevelta 22

60-829 Poznań

tel. (+48) 61 643 45 50

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Al. Jerozolimskie 81

02-001 Warszawa

This Newsletter is provided for general information purposes to keep you up-to-date with changes in tax law, tax rulings by authorities, case law of courts and interesting commentaries. Doradztwo Podatkowe WTS&SAJA shall not be held legally liable for any acts or omissions resulting from reliance on such information.