Country-by-Country reporting for 2023

Entities that are part of a group of entities whose consolidated revenues exceed €750 million shall file a CbC-P notification for 2023 by March 31, 2024. Parent company or other designated entity submits CbC-R group of entities notification for 2023 by December 31, 2024.

Regulations

The country-by-country reporting mechanism was developed under the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan. The purpose of introducing CbC reporting is to equip tax administrations with data to assess transfer pricing risks. The mechanism is designed to increase the effectiveness of combating tax abuses leading to the transfer of profits to other jurisdictions, including tax havens.

At the EU level, the relevant regulations are contained in Directive 2016/881/EU introducing the obligation for member states to implement a mechanism for automatic exchange of tax information between countries for country-by-country reporting. The directive has been implemented in Poland within the framework of the Act of March 9, 2017 on exchange of tax information with other countries. This law specifies, among other things, the detailed scope of information that taxpayers should report, as well as the procedure for exchanging information between countries.

Scope of reporting

As a result of the introduction of Country-by-Country reporting, large multinational groups are required to provide the tax administration with information on, among other things:

• the size of their business (size of assets, share capital, number of employees),
• the amount of revenues realized, profits (or losses) made, tax paid and accrued,
• the locations of the business, and the subject of the business.

Any entity that is part of a group of entities is required to report CbC if its results are consolidated in the group’s financial statements and the group’s consolidated revenues in the previous fiscal year exceeded:

PLN 3,250,000,000 if the group prepares consolidated financial statements in PLN, or

EUR 750 million or the equivalent of this amount, converted according to the rules indicated in the Tax Information Exchange Act.

If the indicated revenue level is exceeded, the entity shall notify that:

is itself the parent entity or the entity designated to prepare and file group information for the entire group of entities (CbC-R), or

is an entity belonging to a group required to file a CbC-R report and in its CbC-P notification indicates the reporting entity and the country or territory where the CbC-R report will be filed.

In view of the above, group entities with revenues exceeding EUR 750 million shall file a CbC-P notification indicating the reporting entity and the country in which the group of entities will be reported, and the entity designated for reporting shall prepare and file a CbC-R report.

In practice, this means that any Polish taxpayer (including a branch of a foreign company) that is part of an international group of entities required to file a CbC-R report must notify the Head of KAS (CbC-P notification) of which entity will file the report and in which country.

The obligation to report CbC-R applies to entities consolidated by either the full consolidation or pro rata consolidation method. An entity consolidated by the equity method is not required to file a CbC-P notification for this group.

Reporting deadline

The deadline for CbC-P reporting is 3 months after the end of the previous fiscal year. If the group’s reporting year follows the calendar year, the deadline for filing the CbC-P notification for 2023 is March 31, 2024.

The CbC-P notification is filed annually, even if there have been no changes from the previous year.

The designated entity has 12 months from the end of the previous fiscal year to prepare and submit the CbC-R.

There is a penalty of up to PLN 1 million for failing to comply with the reporting or country-by-country notification obligation, or for submitting incomplete reporting or inconsistent data.

In case of failure to comply with the reporting obligation, obliged entities may file a so-called active regret. In order for an active regret to be considered legitimate, the prerequisites set forth in the Fiscal Penal Code must be met, and the information obligation must be fulfilled at the same time.

Planned changes

The Finance Ministry has prepared a draft amendment to the Accounting Act. The new regulations assume the implementation of EU Directive 2021/2101 of November 24, 2021, amending Directive 2013/34/EU with respect to the disclosure of information on income tax by certain entities and branches.

The directive requires large multinational companies with revenues exceeding €750 million in two consecutive years, based in the EU as well as outside the European Economic Area (EEA), if they conduct business in the EU through a branch or subsidiary, to publicly disclose information on income tax paid and other tax-related information on a country-by-country basis (the “income tax report”).

Our support

Proper fulfillment of Country-by-Country reporting obligations is one of the elements of tax year-end closing. Check out our tax compliance services or contact us directly. We are here to make running your business easier.