The Director of the National Tax Information in their recent ruling confirms – the flat-rate remuneration of a tax remitter or collector is calculated based on the PIT tax amount or PIT advance payments timely paid to the relevant tax office account, not on the amount of tax or advances deducted from employees’ salaries. Such remuneration is therefore lower when the tax remitter applies the innovative employee relief.
Innovative Employee Relief as an extension of R&D relief
The applicant is a company that conducts research and development activities, incurring qualified costs. On this basis, it benefits from the research and development relief (R&D relief). Moreover, the company currently employs and plans to employ qualified individuals under employment contracts, contracts for specific work, and mandate contracts. PIT advances are and will be deducted from their remuneration and then paid timely to the appropriate tax office.
The company uses and will continue to use in subsequent years the deduction constituting the innovative employee relief, which complements the R&D relief. The application of the innovative employee relief allows for reducing the amounts of PIT advance payments and flat-rate tax on wages of employees, contractors, and specific work contractors that are subject to transfer to the tax office account by the amounts of unclaimed qualified costs from the previous year and tax rates due to tax loss or low income. The rules for using the relief are regulated i.a. in Article 18db of the CIT Act.
Determining the flat-rate remuneration for tax remitter or collector
Given the above, the company planned to collect flat-rate remuneration in connection with timely tax payments to the relevant tax office account. The possibility of collecting such flat-rate remuneration is regulated in Article 28 of the Tax Ordinance. The amount of remuneration is specified in the Minister of Finance’s Regulation of June 28, 2022, regarding the remuneration of tax remitters and collectors for timely payment of taxes to the state budget. According to the regulation, the remuneration for timely tax payment to the state budget is 0.3% of the tax amount collected by the tax remitter and 0.1% of the tax amount collected by the collector.
Tax remitter’s remuneration only from timely payment of tax obligations to the state budget
The company determined that it would calculate the 0.3% flat-rate remuneration from the amount of PIT advance payments deducted from specialists’ remuneration without reducing the amount by the value of the deduction under the innovative employee relief.
The tax authority disagreed with the presented facts, indicating that according to the literal wording of the regulation, remuneration for tax remitters and collectors is due for timely payment of taxes to the state budget, not from the moment of tax collection. Therefore, merely collecting the tax without its timely payment to the relevant tax office account, regardless of the cause, does not constitute grounds for calculating flat-rate remuneration for the tax remitter. This means that the tax remitter’s remuneration should be calculated from the amount actually paid to the tax office; reduction of payment due to innovative employee relief decreases the base for calculating the tax remitter’s remuneration. In principle, the amount of initially collected tax is irrelevant if it was not paid in full.
Individual Ruling of the Director of National Tax Information dated October 29, 2024, ref. 0111-KDIB1-3.4017.5.2024.1.DW
