From 20 September 2008, the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and the National Health Fund (NFZ) will give businesses interpretations of social and health insurance regulations as they apply to current or future events.
Currently, these are only available where the business is ordered to pay a public levy, which means practically taxes.
The new arrangements make widespread reference to the procedures for obtaining individual interpretations of tax law (set out in the Tax Ordinance Act) and provide that:
- Applications should be filed with the relevant branch of ZUS or NFZ.
- Applicants should set out the current or future event and their own interpretation of the regulations.
- Applicants must pay a PLN 40 fee for each event for which they seek an interpretation.
- ZUS or NFZ will issue an interpretation in the form of a decision (unlike interpretations of tax law, which are given as rulings) which the applicant shall have a right to appeal against.
- Interpretations will be issued within 30 days of being submitted or the applicant's own interpretation will be deemed correct and will be binding on the administrative authorities in relation to the specific event.
- Applicants will not be obliged to follow interpretations but, if they do, they cannot be subject to any public levy, administrative or financial sanction or penalty for doing so.
Law: Act amending the Act on Freedom of Economic Activity and other acts.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
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The original publication date for this article was 26/08/2008.