Starting from September 1, 2019, Head of the National Revenue Administration keeps a so-called "The White List" - a list of VAT taxpayers, i.e. entities registered, deleted or restored to the VAT register. The obligation results from the Act of 12 April 2019 amending the Act on Tax on goods and services and certain other acts (Dz. U. 2019, poz. 1018) “Act”.
The White List is intended to enable taxpayers to verify the status of their counterparties and thus facilitate exercising due diligence in settlement with their contractors. The White List contains a wide scope of data i.a. NIP and REGON numbers, KRS number if provided, as well as settlement account numbers or personal accounts held in SKOK, opened in connection with the economic activities of that member.
According to the Act, taxpayers should verify whether counterparty’s account (settlement account or personal account in SKOK), to which they make payments, is included in the White List. The above obligation relates to transactions exceeding 15,000 PLN. If the account is not included in the White List, after January 1, 2020, payments to such account may be subject to sanctions with regard to:
- the possibility to classify such payment as a tax deductible cost
- joint and several liability for tax arrears of the counterparty if the latter fails to pay the VAT due on the transaction.
The risk and responsibility for verifying whether the recipient’s account is on the White List is borne by the entity (taxpayer) making the payment. The bank has no such obligation.
The White List, as well as details of its operation and effects of its use, can be found on the website of the Ministry of Finance.