The 64th sitting of the Senate was held from 12 to 13 July. Among other things, the Senate worked on the proposed law to amend the VAT Act and certain other acts in order to introduce mandatory e-invoices and national e-invoicing system (KSeF). In accordance with the proposal, which was passed by the Sejm on 16 June, e-invoicing would become mandatory as of 1 July 2024  for non-exempt taxable persons, both those established in Poland and those having a fixed establishment here, and as of 1 January 2025 for exempt taxable persons.

The Senate’s Committee for the Budget and Public Finances focused on the unconstitutionality of two areas in the proposed legislation:

  • The form in which e-invoice template would be made public. The Committee held that the proposal is incompatible with Article 87 of the Constitution to the extent it requires the generally applicable e-invoice template, as well as application forms for WIS and WIA, to be published in an information bulletin. According to the Committee, if the lawmakers want to impose specific duties on taxable persons (duty to use a generally applicable document template) and enforce compliance (such as by imposing penalty for not using the template), they must act within the powers specifically granted by the Constitution and achieve their goal by means of a legislative act specifically mentioned in the Constitution (e.g. a statute, a statutory regulation, a regulation, an act of local law).
  • There were no public consultations on proposed amendments to civil service legislation. The Committee held that to the extent it related to amendments to civil service legislation, the legislative process violated Articles 2 and 7 of the Constitution.

While the Senate did recommend that changes should be made to the proposal to deal with those concerns, it ultimately voted to reject it. When working on the proposal the Senate did not address any of the specific provisions on their merits.

Having KSeF in place is just a matter of time, what with Poland’s obligations to the European Commission and the advanced stage of the process to implement mandatory e-invoices. The Senate’s vote will not stop that. In this context, the Senate does not seem to have effectively spent their time working on the proposal. It could have used that time to propose refinements that would help taxpayers better understand the new regulations.

The proposal will now go back to the Sejm, which is due to meet on 28 July 2023, the last sitting before parliamentary holidays. If the proposal is to be enacted into law according to what was planned by the Finance Ministry, it will have to be adopted at that sitting.

We will keep you updated on the progress of this legislation.

If this issue pertains to your business and you are interested in our assistance, please contact us.

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