VAT reduction on some food products – there will be inspections by the Trade Inspection Service

The employer will be able to require testing for COVID?

It will be more difficult to transfer the company to a so-called “post”?

VAT reduction on some food products – there will be inspections by the Trade Inspection Service

On January 13, 2022, an amendment to the VAT Law was passed that introduces a 0% VAT rate from February 1, 2022 to July 31, 2022 for the following food products:

1. Meat and offal, intestines, bladders and stomachs of animals
2. Fish and crustaceans, molluscs, other aquatic invertebrates
3. Dairy products, eggs, honey, compound fats (mixes), infant formulae
4. Vegetables, fruits and nuts
5. Cereals and products of the milling industry
6. Oil seeds and fruits, grains, industrial crops, straw and fodder
7. Edible fats and oils
8. Preparations from animals, grains, vegetables and fruits
9. Soups and broths, food preparations, homogenized
10. Ice cream
11. Some non-alcoholic beverages
12. Dietary foods for special medical purposes.

Previously, basic food products were subject to a 5% rate.

“Zero” VAT also extended to soil conditioners, fertilizers, horticultural soil and natural gas. Previously, these products were subject to an 8% rate.

A VAT rate of 5% has also been established for electricity and heat (previously it was 5% and 8%, respectively), and a VAT rate of 8% for gasoline, diesel and gas for engines (previously: 23%).

Vendors with an assortment of the above. products, are obliged to post at the cash register with legible information about VAT reductions.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has instructed the Trade Inspectorate to monitor prices at stores and gas stations to see whether the VAT reduction has reduced the prices of these products, and whether retailers have complied with their obligation to inform about the rate change. If vendors fail to comply with these regulations, the OCCP may initiate proceedings for violating the collective interests of customers, for which a penalty of up to 10% of turnover may be imposed.

Will an employer be able to require COVID testing?

In mid-December 2021, a parliamentary bill on special solutions to ensure the possibility of doing business during the COVID-19 epidemic was submitted to the Parliament. The draft is currently at the parliamentary stage and is stirring up quite a bit of controversy, so let’s take a closer look at what it contains.

If the law enters into force, an employee (as well as a person employed on a so-called “junk job”) will be able to take a diagnostic test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus free of charge during an epidemic. While this solution should be evaluated positively, and probably no one should have any objections to it, the stairs appear with the next adjustment.

Indeed, the draft will introduce the authority for an employer to provide information about having a negative test taken no more than 48 hours earlier, while an employee with an EU digital COVID certificate is exempt from the obligation to provide information about the test.

If the employee does not provide information on the test, the employer may change the organization of work, systems or schedules of employees, and even assign the employee to perform a different type of work (with remuneration corresponding to the type of work, not less than the existing one). At the same time, it was decided that the employers’ activities related to the implementation of the aforementioned entitlements do not constitute a violation of the principle of equal treatment in employment.

In addition, certain restrictions, prohibitions obligations and orders, introduced by the regulations, will be excluded for entities performing activities for a person with a negative test result or an EU digital COVID certificate. The law will introduce authorization for such entities to demand the production of a test or certificate. In case of refusal, such a person is treated as a person who does not have the above-mentioned. documents.

Opinions are divided on the above parliamentary proposals. In their appeal, the medical profession’s local governments demand the introduction of effective regulations, pointing out that these regulations “must be comprehensive and should not cede from public authorities to employers and businesses the responsibility for ensuring epidemiological safety in the country.”

The Council of Ministers, in turn, is positive about the parliamentary bill. Ordo Iuris is not satisfied with the proposed solutions, pointing out that the project “leads to sanitary segregation of citizens and deepens already existing social divisions.” The Entrepreneurship Council of the National Chamber of Commerce calls “for the introduction of appropriate solutions recommended by the Medical Council, which will allow verification of a person’s health status, especially in the context of direct access to public facilities, administrative bodies, courts, places of worship or even parliament.”

It remains an open question whether, with the slowly increasing trend among European countries to lift restrictions and requirements on the… vaccinations, the project – once completed in the Diet – will still have a raison d’être.

It will be more difficult to transfer the company to the so-called “company”. “pole?”

In November of last year, a parliamentary bill amending the Law on Notaries and the Law on the KRS was submitted to the Sejm. In December, the draft was referred to the Justice and Human Rights Committee for its first reading.

The draft imposes an additional obligation on notaries in the form of sending electronically to the KRS registry information on the disposal of shares (stocks) in capital companies and the disposal of all rights and obligations in partnerships (presumably, the drafters had in mind the disposal of all rights and obligations of a partner in partnerships). The notification is to include information on who acquired the company in its entirety.

In addition, in the Register of Entrepreneurs of the National Court Register, a new heading – No. 9 – titled “Company on divestment” will be introduced in Section 6. This section will provide information on who acquired the company in its entirety, while the data will be subject to deletion after all changes are entered in the KRS.

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