Changes in the catalog of business activity entitling to 50% of tax costs

One of the recent amendments to the PIT Act concerned, inter alia, the catalogue of activities entitling to 50% of tax costs. Pursuant to the provisions of the Act, only the activity indicated directly in the catalog under art. 22 ust. 9b of the PIT Act benefited from tax preferences. However, the scope of the catalog triggered some doubts, which is why it was clarified in the area of types of activities.

Pursuant to the wording of the amended act, the list of activities entitling to benefit from 50% of tax costs will concern:

• creative activity in the field of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, construction engineering, urban planning, literature, fine arts, industrial design, music, photography, audio and audiovisual works, computer programs, computer games, theater, costume design, stage design, direction, choreography, artistic luting, folk art and journalism;
• artistic activity in the fields of acting, stage, dance and circus as well as in the field of conducting, vocal and instrumental studies;
• audio and audiovisual production;
• journalistic activity;
• museum activities in the field of exhibition, science, popularization, education and publishing;
• conservation activity;
• subsidiary law referred to in art. 2 para. 2 of the Act of 4 February 1994 on Copyright and Related Rights (Journal of Laws of 2017, item 880 and item 1089, as of 2018 item 650), to prepare someone else’s work in the form of a translation;
• research and development, scientific-didactic, scientific and teaching activities carried out at the university.

Do the amended regulations solve all problems related to the application of 50% of tax costs?

The amendment to the PIT Act, unfortunately, does not solve problems that over time have accumulated around 50% of the tax deductible costs. We are still not sure what the creative activity is in the field of computer programs, and whether the activity of computer graphics is subject to tax preference. Positive changes should be indication of creative activity in tin the catalog entitling to 50% tax costs.

Taxpayers must independently decide how to implement the increased tax costs, as the amended provisions do not give clear answers to the doubts that arise in the practice of their application. The PIT Act still does not indicate how to determine the employee’s remuneration (percentage of remuneration or fixed amount), as well as does not specify any additional conditions that should be met by taxpayers, which are often imposed by the tax authorities during the tax audits. Tax interpretations also do not give clear answers to these questions.