This position is confirmed by the judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Rzeszów of 21 January 2021. (Case file I SA/Rz 841/20). In the facts described above, the applicant applied to the Director of the National Fiscal Information for an individual interpretation seeking an answer to the question of whether it is required to file information on a group of entities for the year 2019 under the provisions of the Act on Exchange of Tax Information with Other States (Journal of Laws 2020.343, i.e.).
The Director of the National Tax Information refused to initiate proceedings to issue an individual interpretation. In the opinion of the authority, the provisions of the Act on Exchange of Tax Information are not tax law provisions within the meaning of the Tax Ordinance; they do not impose on entities any obligations that would affect the creation or performance of a tax obligation, and thus cannot be covered by the issuance of an interpretation.
The subject matter of the rules of law justifying the issuance of an individual interpretation is set forth in art. 14b § 1 of the Tax ordinance, pursuant to which the Director of National Fiscal Information issues, at the request of an interested party, an interpretation of the tax rules in an individual case. The term “tax law provisions” was defined in art. 3 section 2 of the Tax ordinance, according to which the term “tax law provisions” means provisions of tax acts, provisions of double taxation avoidance agreements ratified by the Republic of Poland and provisions of other international agreements ratified by the Republic of Poland concerning tax issues, as well as provisions of executive acts issued pursuant to tax acts. Art. 2 section 3 of the Tax Code defines tax acts as acts relating to taxes, fees and non-taxable budgetary charges specifying the taxpayer, the subject of taxation, the tax obligation, the tax base, tax rates and regulating the rights and obligations of tax authorities, taxpayers, payers and collectors, as well as their legal successors and third parties.
To sum up, regulations which do not constitute provisions of tax law within the meaning of Art. 14b § 1 of the Tax Code, cannot be the subject of an individual interpretation.
Author: Magdalena Świątkiewicz – Tax consultant
