Poland clamping down on tax fraud
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
06.07.2016 17:29
The Polish government has announced a crackdown on tax cheats who last year caused budget losses estimated at over PLN 80 billion.
Justice Minister Ziobro, Finance Minister Szałamacha, PM Szydło. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
During a joint press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Beata Szydło, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro and Finance Minister Paweł Szałamacha announced a package of tougher measures against tax fraud.
“Our goal is to fight those extorting money from the state budget as well as tax avoiders, while protecting honest taxpayers,” said Szydło.
Justice Minister and Attorney General Ziobro said that punishment for minor cases of forging invoices will remain at six months to eight years in jail, but in more serious cases, worth PLN 1 million (EUR 225,000/USD 250,000) or in case of repeat offenders, the punishment will be at least three years’ imprisonment up to a maximum of 15.
The most serious cases – involving several million PLN – will be punished with five to 25 years’ imprisonment.
According to Ziobro, the prospect of a long jail sentence will effectively prevent tax fraud, which last year, according to a Supreme Audit Office (NIK) report, resulted in estimated budget losses of over PLN 80 billion (EUR 18 billion/USD 20 billion). (mol/pk)
Source: PAP