White list of VAT payers in Poland

In Poland, on September 1, 2019, a new law came into force that introduces an electronic list of valid VAT payers, or the so-called WHITE LIST (BIAŁA LISTA PŁATNIKÓW VAT). This list replaced the existing lists of persons subject to VAT – registered and unregistered, deleted or restored in the VAT register. With the help of a WHITE LIST, it is now very easy and simple to check potential contractors and partners. This list is maintained by the Ministry of Finance. The list is posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance and can be found in the Central Register and Information on Economic Activities – this is for one person companies (CEIDG).

In order to get on the list, you need to submit a form – VAT R to the local tax registration of the VAT payer, besides a form NIP 8. The tax office enters the data and your company appears on the list. The process takes several days. It is important that your company records your bank account numbers correctly on your company’s WHITE LIST. But we recommend checking the correctness of your data. If you find an error, you must contact the local tax office.

What is a WHITE LIST?

The WHITE LIST of VAT payers is a list of all basic information about payers. This list combines two registers:

• the register of entities registered as VAT payers, including those whose registration as payers has been restored, and
• the register of entities not registered with the tax service, and those that have been deleted as VAT payers.

This list is supplemented by other information – it contains the status of VAT payers, as well as their bank account numbers.

WHITE LISTED Taxpayer Data

What information and data can you find using this list:

• Company name or first and last name of the entrepreneur
• NIP number (the number by which a person is identified for tax purposes), if one has been assigned
• PESEL number (identified number, or TIN), if one has been assigned
• REGON number (number in the general Polish register of judicial economy), if one has been assigned
• National Court Register (KRS) number, if one has been assigned
• Taxpayer status – registered as an active VAT payer or exempt VAT payer, persons whose registration has been restored, as well as persons in respect of whom registration has not been made, or who have been deleted from the register of VAT taxpayers
• Legal address for legal entities
• Names and surnames of persons who are part of the body authorized to represent that person and their tax identification numbers (NIP)
• The names and surnames of the trustees and their identification numbers (NIP)
• Dates of registration, refusal of registration or deletion from the register and restoration of registration as VAT payers
• Legal basis for refusal of registration, deletion from the register and restoration of registration as VAT payers
• Numbers of bank current accounts opened in connection with the conduct of business and reported to the tax authority in the application

Information that is on the white list can be found on the website of the Ministry of Finance of Poland by entering the following data:

• Company name or first and last name of the entrepreneur
• NIP number
• REGON number
• Bank account number

WHITE LISTED companies bank account numbers

One of the most important WHITE LISTED information is information about a company’s bank accounts. By the presence of this information, one can immediately understand that such a company is registered, or its registration as a VAT payer has been restored. If there is no information about the bank account, it means that this legal entity was refused registration as a VAT payer.

As we discussed above, the bank accounts listed are the accounts that were reported to the tax authority in the NIP-8 statement. Information on opening or changing an account should always be updated, since only these accounts can receive payments from counter-parties. Companies registered with the KRS submit this information directly to the tax authority. Entrepreneurs who do business make changes with CEIDG.

All WHITE LISTED companies accounts are loaded automatically from the Ministry of Finance database, after confirmation in STIR (Clearing House Tele information System). The same system helps to conduct analytics and prevent tax fraud. Information is transmitted to STIR through the bank that services your account.

Sanctions for using non-whitelisted accounts

From January 1, 2020, amendments to the legislation entered into force in Poland, which oblige entrepreneurs to check the information in the white list each time, whether the bank account indicated in the invoice is the correct account of the supplier and services. After this date, if you pay your counter-party over 15,000 PLN to an account that is not on the white list:

• You are not entitled to charge this amount of payment as an expense.
• You are jointly and severally liable, together with your counter-party, for those tax debts for which he will not pay tax from the transaction. In this case, it will be the amount of VAT that will be paid to a different account, and not to the one indicated in the white list.

Before making each payment over PLN 15 000, you should always check the correctness of the counter-party’s bank account. If the counter-party has submitted an incorrect invoice for payment, or an invoice not indicated in the whitelist, it will be correct to ask to change the invoice, or refuse to pay. Well, or pay the invoice, but report the payment made on this invoice to the counter-party’s tax office within 3 days. If the taxpayer pays the invoice to an account that is not in the WHITE LIST, but applies the split payment mechanism, then he will not be jointly and severally liable for the counter-party’s VAT debt.