Certificate of Tax Residency - Poland
Thread poster: Katarina Andersson
Katarina Andersson
Katarina Andersson  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:50
Italian to Swedish
+ ...
Apr 20, 2007

Hello,

this is a question for any Polish translators here. A Polish agency that I am about to start working for asks me to sign a set of NDA and confidentiality agreements and further to provide them with a notarized Certificate of Tax Residency in order to be able to get paid by them. They claim there's some double taxation agreement between Poland and Italy and that they otherwise will make me pay 20 % tax in Poland even though I have my translation VAT number that I have given to
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Hello,

this is a question for any Polish translators here. A Polish agency that I am about to start working for asks me to sign a set of NDA and confidentiality agreements and further to provide them with a notarized Certificate of Tax Residency in order to be able to get paid by them. They claim there's some double taxation agreement between Poland and Italy and that they otherwise will make me pay 20 % tax in Poland even though I have my translation VAT number that I have given to them. Is this right? To me it seems very strange...

Furthermore in the so called NDA agreement they have som clause about that if I will not keep them up to date with personal data they will make me responsible for paying eventual fines they would be charged by the Polish state. There they quote several different regulations etc. according to that. To me it seems very dodgy to sign such a thing where they would be able to charge me for eventual regulations that really are specifically Polish etc.

So far I have told them that I don't like this at all, but they claim this to be standard procedures in order to be able to work for Polish agencies. Hmmm...

Thanks,

Katarina.
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Uldis Liepkalns
Uldis Liepkalns  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 15:50
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
We require such Apr 20, 2007

or rather our Tax Inspection require such certificates from our foreign based freelancers, however, if somebody has a VAT No (freelancers in Baltics about never have that), that's that- nothing else is needed:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/vies/en/vieshome.htm
And these regulations are more or less uniform through the EU.

Uldis

lampedus wrote:

To me it seems very dodgy to sign such a thing where they would be able to charge me for eventual regulations that really are specifically Polish etc.



 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:50
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
Uldis - do you have any information about the directive, which covers that? Apr 20, 2007

I was also asked for such certification, by a Polish customer. This wonders me, however, as no other country has required such.
I have a valid VAT-ID, so this should be sufficient for them, as you say. But they not only want me to give them my residence certifcate, but also want me to fill out the income taxes form for Poland! If you would have a directive or a hint, how to find it, I could forward this to them, so they would hopefully leave me alone then.

Thank you
Jerz
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I was also asked for such certification, by a Polish customer. This wonders me, however, as no other country has required such.
I have a valid VAT-ID, so this should be sufficient for them, as you say. But they not only want me to give them my residence certifcate, but also want me to fill out the income taxes form for Poland! If you would have a directive or a hint, how to find it, I could forward this to them, so they would hopefully leave me alone then.

Thank you
Jerzy
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Katarina Andersson
Katarina Andersson  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:50
Italian to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Uldis, Apr 20, 2007

and I already tried to explain this to them before, after having read up on the issue on the EU website, but they persisted in claiming it was not at all so. But now I will send them the links so they can read up on that themselves etc.:-)

Thanks,

Katarina.


 
Wolfgang Jörissen
Wolfgang Jörissen  Identity Verified
Belize
Dutch to German
+ ...
Complete nonsense! Apr 20, 2007

Being registered as a translation agency in Poland, I have used the services of colleagues outside Poland and I have never been told that I have to request a Certificate of Tax Residency from them, neither by my accountant (who checks each and every invoice in my presence), nor by the tax authorities. VAT ID was sufficient in every case so far. By the way, income tax is 19% as far as I know, but I might be mistaken.

However, I did experience that rules are not always rules in Poland
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Being registered as a translation agency in Poland, I have used the services of colleagues outside Poland and I have never been told that I have to request a Certificate of Tax Residency from them, neither by my accountant (who checks each and every invoice in my presence), nor by the tax authorities. VAT ID was sufficient in every case so far. By the way, income tax is 19% as far as I know, but I might be mistaken.

However, I did experience that rules are not always rules in Poland. Some of my clients here tend to be quite burocratic (although it is getting better and better). Some are perfectly willing to accept pdf-invoices sent by e-mail, others want an undersigned and stamped hardcopy invoice sent by registered mail. Never mind...

There is in fact an issue about double taxation in Poland, but as far as I understand it, this concerns Polish residents working abroad without having given up their address in Poland.

[Bijgewerkt op 2007-04-20 22:16]
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Katarina Andersson
Katarina Andersson  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:50
Italian to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Wolfgang, Apr 20, 2007

this is really reassuring and great to have these comments from you, who are based in Poland and so forth. As I suspected that they were wrong, I just wanted to be sure about this, as they keep telling me I need to send them all these strange documents etc.

Thanks a lot,

Katarina.


 
Izabela Szczypka
Izabela Szczypka  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:50
English to Polish
+ ...
Hi Katarina Apr 21, 2007

I guess the agency is acting as if they were going to employ you in-house and getting ready to file the annual tax statement for you - this is applicable ONLY to in-house employees who have no other income and claim no tax reliefs, credits etc. Such an employee CAN (is not obliged to) ask the employer to file the tax statement for him/her and consequently the employer needs to know the tax standing of such a person in full detail.
As I do not expect that is the case, just give them a stat
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I guess the agency is acting as if they were going to employ you in-house and getting ready to file the annual tax statement for you - this is applicable ONLY to in-house employees who have no other income and claim no tax reliefs, credits etc. Such an employee CAN (is not obliged to) ask the employer to file the tax statement for him/her and consequently the employer needs to know the tax standing of such a person in full detail.
As I do not expect that is the case, just give them a statement to the effect that you're a registered freelancer and do your own taxes - that's a polite way of sending them where they belong. If they have a fastidious accountant (they seem to), he will then want to see copies of your certificates of registration for business and VAT registration (if any), but this is a more or less acceptable practice.
Sad to say, but if they show such a lack of legal/fiscal knowledge and mere common sense from the very beginning, it's not a good omen ...

On second thoughts - with the tax residence certificate they may want to establish if the transactions between you are going to be domestic (VAT-liable if you are VAT registered) or inter-EU, which is VAT-free. Business registration certificate will meet their needs then.

[Edited at 2007-04-21 08:44]
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Uldis Liepkalns
Uldis Liepkalns  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 15:50
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
Hi Jerzy Apr 22, 2007

AFAIK, this is covered not by EU directive (demanding these Tax Residency Certificates), but by bilateral agreements between specific countries. These agreements are more or less the same throughout the EU, but differences exist (at least I know for sure so it is between Latvia and Lithuania).

Explanation added: There is downloadable Tax Residency Certificate form on Latvian IRS page- meant to be filled in by request of foreign residents' by Tax Authorities in other countries save
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AFAIK, this is covered not by EU directive (demanding these Tax Residency Certificates), but by bilateral agreements between specific countries. These agreements are more or less the same throughout the EU, but differences exist (at least I know for sure so it is between Latvia and Lithuania).

Explanation added: There is downloadable Tax Residency Certificate form on Latvian IRS page- meant to be filled in by request of foreign residents' by Tax Authorities in other countries save Lithuania- as Lithuanian authorities would not fill in any forms, but only their own.

AND yes, VAT ID should fully suffice in any case.

Uldis

Jerzy Czopik wrote:
I have a valid VAT-ID, so this should be sufficient for them, as you say. But they not only want me to give them my residence certifcate, but also want me to fill out the income taxes form for Poland! If you would have a directive or a hint, how to find it, I could forward this to them, so they would hopefully leave me alone then.


[Rediģēts plkst. 2007-04-22 18:43]
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Certificate of Tax Residency - Poland







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