Transactions exceeding 15,000 PLN. What to keep in mind in 2020?

From January 1st, 2020, several new regulations governing payment methods came into force in Poland. Entrepreneurs should pay special attention to commercial transactions with a total value exceeding 15,000 PLN gross, notably in the context of the split payment method and the white list of VAT payers.

The value of the transaction exceeding 15,000 PLN is a common denominator for tax regulations that should be particularly taken into account in the new year. Specifically about the need to make cashless transactions, use the split payment method and the white list of active VAT payers (in force since last year). From the new year, the entrepreneur is risking the exclusion of transaction amount from tax-deductible costs when failing to comply with the abovementioned regulations.

To avoid the risk of sanctions, all entrepreneurs carrying out transactions with a value exceeding 15,000 PLN – taken directly as a quota or calculated according to the value of the transaction from the contract – should remember three things.

• Payments should be non-cash with the use of a bank account – under art. 19 Pp regulations.
• The bank account to which the payment is made must be included in the white list of VAT payers (as for the day of the transfer order) – unless the entrepreneur will submit the proper notification to the Tax Office within 3 days.
• Payments should be made by the split payment method (MPP).

For sanctions to be eligible, the total value of a commercial transaction must exceed 15,000 PLN gross including VAT (regardless of the number of actual payment transfers made). The equivalent of the above amount in foreign currencies is also eligible.

Therefore, the direct value of the transaction is not determined by the amount stated on the invoice or the amount paid, but by the value resulting from the contract. There may be instants when the completion of a specific transaction is distributed in time into several separate payments. Then, although we will deal with a series of separate payments, they will be classified as one commercial transaction. If the sum exceeds 15,000 PLN gross and payments will not be carried out under the mentioned rules, the imposing of exclusion from tax-deductible costs will apply.

Exclusion from tax-deductible costs

A sanction against an entrepreneur can only be applied if the recipient of the transfer is also an entrepreneur. Moreover, in case of the acquisition or production of fixed assets, or the acquisition of intangible assets (with amortization charges write-off). When the sanction is eligible, the taxpayer is obliged to:

• reduce tax-deductible costs by the amount of transaction, or
• when it is not possible, to increase his income by this amount.

The entrepreneur should apply those corrections in the same month as the non-compliant payment was made.