Business News Poland-week 19
- Stanisław Chao
- May 7, 2020
- 3 min read
Weekly briefing you important business news regarding Poland.
Planned regulations impacting mergers and acquisitions market in Poland
Similar to numerous initiatives in Western Europe, the Ministry of State Assets of Poland works on regulations aimed at introducing more rigorous conditions for takeovers by foreign investors of Polish companies faced with adverse economic situation caused by the pandemic. The new law could be adopted within one of the anti-crisis legislation packages, most likely as part of the so-called Shield 3.0.
The Ministry of State Assets enjoys further powers based on the act of 18 March 2010 on executing special rights in respect of designated companies or capital groups active in the electricity, oil and gas sectors. These measures affect companies, whose assets are included on the critical infrastructure list.
The effect of the new regulation on the mergers and acquisitions market will depend largely on how state authorities will exercise their new duties. Deadlines governing when a transaction should be notified and how quickly investors can expect transaction clearance will be of particular importance. Considering how functioning of administration is already objectively affected by actions aimed at fending off the pandemic, the ability of authorities to efficiently embrace their new duties will have a material impact on improving the state of the overall economy.
Poland plans revenue surcharge on Netflix and others
Poland plans to introduce a 1.5% surcharge on the revenue of video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix, Finance Minister Tadeusz Koscinski said on Wednesday. "This will not be a tax, this will be a surcharge the culture minister wants to impose on (such) companies that generate profits thanks to Poland," Koscinski told a teleconference with journalists.
According to the ministry of culture, the surcharge, dubbed "Netflix tax" by Polish media, will be paid directly to the Polish Film Institute (PISF), a state cultural agency. Netflix is Poland's most popular video streaming platform with 5.4 million users last month in the country of 38 million people, according to the spidersweb.pl portal.
It is estimated that PISF would receive 15 million zloty ($3.6 million) this year from streaming giants such as Apple+, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and their local competitors, rising to 20 million zloty a year from 2021, according to the Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper.
EU split over halting bailouts for tax haven firms
France, Poland, and Denmark have so far proposed barring companies that are based, or have subsidiaries, in tax havens from receiving coronavirus-linked bailouts. Italy may soon join them after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio added his voice to calls to tackle tax havens.
European Commission confirmed on April 24 that its existing rules allow individual EU countries to block coronavirus aid from going to companies based in tax havens.
It is unlikely that authorities in the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Luxembourg will follow suit any time soon. The UK is described by The Tax Justice Network as the "world's greatest enabler of corporate tax avoidance, responsible for over a third of the world's corporate tax avoidance risks" through its network of crown dependencies and overseas territories.
Thousands of Romanian seasonal workers fly to Germany despite COVID-19 restrictions
Between 1,500 and 2,000 Romanian workers gathered at the international airport in Cluj-Napoca on Thursday, April 9, to fly to Germany where they will spend the next few months working in agriculture (picking strawberries and asparagus) and other temporary jobs. Despite the risk of infection with the new coronavirus (Germany is the third country in Europe by the number of cases), Romanian workers have decided to leave just before the Easter holidays so that they can earn some money, given that most economic activities in Romania are suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions, Mediafax wrote.
Several aircraft with workers from Romania landed on Thursday at the airports in Berlin, Hamburg, and Dusseldorf, despite restrictions imposed by the German authorities for limiting the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to dpa, quoted by Agerpres.
German farmers are relieved that they can bring workers to pick up seasonal crops such as white asparagus. “As a result of this arrangement, our farmers can continue to operate,” said Joachim Rukwied, president of the German Farmers Association.
Despite suspending all flights to and from countries with many cases of COVID-19 infections, Romania has allowed seasonal workers to leave the country. The German government reached an agreement last week to take over 80,000 foreign seasonal workers under strict conditions, with arrivals expected to take place during April and May, according to dpa, quoted by Agerpres.
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