The Polish Ministry of Finance (the MoF) released a statement that identified cases of abuse of tax exemption for dividends by making their payments using intermediaries on 3rd November 2017.
As of 1 January 2016, the Polish dividend withholding tax exemption based on the European Union (EU) Parent-Subsidiary Directive, has been subject to a selected anti-abuse test (the General Anti-Avoidance Rule) which invalidated the exemption if the business justification test is not fulfilled.
In the aggressive optimization scheme involves the abuse of tax exemption for dividends paid by the operating company. In the situation of a direct acquisition of an operating company by a holding company (outside the EU / EEA), the operating company would be required to collect as a “withholding tax” on such dividends to be charged at a statutory rate of 19%.
