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A certificate of tax residence - basic information

What is a certificate of tax residence?

As follows from article 4 paragraph 12 updop and article 5, paragraph 21 updof through the certificate of tax residence should understand a certificate of place of the headquarters of a taxpayer (legal entity) or place of residence of the taxpayer (natural person) for tax purposes issued by the competent authority of the state tax administration at the location/residence of the taxpayer.

When and who issued it?

The certificate documents the past and present condition. This means that you cannot specify a tax residence to a future date.
In accordance with article 306l of the tax code, the tax authority according to the taxpayer must issue a certificate about his place of residence or place of domicile for tax purposes in the territory of the Republic of Poland.

What elements must contain a certificate of tax residence?

The certificate of residence must contain:

date of issue
place of residence (physical person) or legal address of the company (legal person)
purpose, for what you need this document
the name of the administrative authority issuing the certificate
you can refer to the agreement the avoidance of double taxation.

The relevance of the certificate of tax residence.

Certificate of tax residence is valid until it is not changed-confirmed to him the facts. Tax authorities in recent years confirm this statement, which the best example is the interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw on April 26, 2010: To date the legal Department under the provisions of income tax act from individuals, not regulation, determine the validity of the certificate of residence. Thus, it should be recognized that the certificate is valid as long as actual it does not change. Of course, this rule does not apply in situations in which the tax certificate is determined by the validity period, indicating the tax year and specifies the time period for which the certificate was issued.

What is the consequence of the absence of a certificate of residence?

Foreign taxpayers receiving income from Polish sources in a situation when they have a certificate of tax residence, can apply the preferential statement of taxation, resulting from international agreements. The presence of this document is required because otherwise legal, as a rule, automatically loses the possibility of using tax incentives in this area.