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Taxation Council
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The PKPP Lewiatan Taxation Council is an advisory body of the Board and President in matters concerning the tax legislation. The Council consists of managers responsible in the member companies for the tax and financial issues, as well as experts from consulting companies associated with the Polish Union of Consulting Employers and the PKPP Lewiatan office. |
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Basic rules of the Taxation Council
The concept of the Taxation Council is based upon the three below principles:
1. CORPORATE PRINCIPLE
Only representatives of the member companies may be members of the Taxation Council. The Council does not act as an assembly of “personalities” or “authorities”. It is a forum of exchange of views and proposals in the field of taxes and tax law for direct and indirect members of the PKPP Lewiatan. The Council is to contribute to the establishment of a representative member community able to actively and quickly react to the legislative proposal in the field of taxation.
2. PRINCIPLE OF VOLUNTARINESS
Membership in the Council is a right every member may make use of, not an obligation. It is the right of a member company to determine level of activity of its representative in the Council work.
3. PRINCIPLE OF PROFESSIONALISM
The Council shall consist of managers responsible in the member companies for the tax issues (heads of tax departments, lawyers, accountants, financial directors). The Council shall act first of all as an expert body giving professional opinions in tax matters.
System of consulting legal acts and the Taxation Council
Consulting legal acts
The Taxation Council acts independently of the system of consulting legal acts which has for several years been available to all member companies.
The applied system of consultations consists in placing the draft received for consultation on the website. In case of drafts for which the deadline for giving opinion is longer, information thereof is also put in the weekly PKPP Lewiatan bulletin distributed among its members. In case of draft acts addressed to a specified industry instead of entrepreneurs in general, drafts have also been sent to interested companies or industry associations.
On the basis of submitted remarks opinions and standpoints are developed which are then presented at different legislative fora, starting from the governmental consultations, through the parliamentary works up to contacts with the office of the President. Works concerning the EU legislation are carried out in a similar way.
Our own initiatives
One of the Confederation’s tasks is to take initiatives concerning changes in the legal system. As in case of consultations concerning draft legal acts the Council activity does not exclude an open debate. Yet, the Taxation Council is a decisive factor in this respect.
Forms of activity and tasks of the Council
The Council works in plenary sessions during regular (e.g. quarterly) meetings, when its members have the possibility to obtain information on the current legislative works (both domestic and European ones), to prepare standpoints and opinions on works underway as well as to exchange experiences.
The main form of the Council work is discussion and exchange of opinions through the electronic mail.
Standpoints, assessments and opinions are used in the analyses prepared by the PKPP Lewiatan which are presented:
- in the process of domestic social consultations of the governmental draft legal acts,
- in the Tripartite Commission,
- in the legislative process that takes place in the national parliament,
- within the framework of the UNICE membership when consulting the European legal acts,
- in case of consultations concerning European legal acts and taking place outside the UNICE (directly with the European Commission or with the European Parliament)
- at scientific and programme conferences concerning taxes and tax law.
The Council should also provide, as far as possible, expertises and opinions on matters analysed by BIAC (an OECD advisory committee), which deals mostly with problems of avoiding double taxation.
The Council takes also initiatives not related with current legislative needs. The elaborated concepts serve as a basis for the long-term “taxation doctrine” of the PKPP Lewiatan. |
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