On October 9, in Warsaw, the Big Money Forum, held for the first time in a charity format, once again united 500+ top entrepreneurs in Europe to create a platform for finding new partners and like-minded people, obtaining up-to-date knowledge about practical business cases, and effective advice from speakers. EUCON became a partner of the event, and attorney, partner, head of the Warsaw office Andrii Romanchuk, adviser, and tax consultant Inha Livandowska spoke as experts during the workshop held within the forum.
Andrii Romanchuk began his speech on the topic «Financial instruments for startups: the venture ecosystem in Poland» by presenting EUCON’s activities, in particular regarding the experience of supporting companies and startups when entering European markets. The expert introduced the participants to the context of the topic, demonstrating the mechanism of action of the ecosystem of the network of startups operating between Ukraine and Poland thanks to the mediation of the Association of Ukrainian Business in Poland and Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge, as well as ISE Corporate Accelerator (on the Ukrainian side) and Rebels Valley, Startup Academy (from the Polish side).
According to the data provided by the speaker, during 2014-2020, Poland became the most successful beneficiary of funding from EU funds, which were effectively used for the development of various sectors of the economy. According to the speaker, attention should be paid to the possibility of using financial instruments in Poland in terms of the planned EU allocation of 160 billion euros during 2021-2027, of which 125 billion will be allocated for additional financing, and 35 billion. – for loans.
Then the listeners had the opportunity to learn more about the factors that make the Polish market attractive for foreign investors (special economic zones, industrial and technological parks, state grants, cheap banking programs, certain tax benefits, etc.), as well as about nine types of attracting financing ( FFF, accelerators, business angel, grant, VC Funds, crowdfunding, mezzanine funds, private equity funds, IPO).
Equally important among the issues considered are the types of sources of funding for entrepreneurial activity, the list of the most common problems encountered by startups when conducting business in Poland and when using financial instruments, and the most difficult regulatory barriers for startups.
Concluding his speech, Andrii Romanchuk provided statistics on the amount of financing involved, the number and value of investments raised by startups, and their distribution, and also spoke about the features of opening accounts in Polish banks (requirements, opening procedures, management).
Inha Livandowska focused on the tax aspects of doing business in Poland. The expert named the main tax rates in Poland, including tax on goods and services – VAT 23%, 8%, 5%, 0%; corporate income tax (CIT) – 19% or 9%; Estonian SIT as a special type of income taxation of legal entities; personal income tax (PIT) – 12% or 32%; transaction tax from 0.1% to 2%; real estate tax (set by the Commune Council).
Next, Ms. Inga focused in more detail on corporate income taxation in Poland (CIT), explaining the difference between the terms of payment at the basic rate of 19% and the preferential rate of 9%, which is available only to those who are just starting to conduct their economic activities – in the year of the start of conduct activities (small taxpayer – income for the previous tax year does not exceed 2 million euros gross + income received in this tax year – does not exceed 2 million euros).
In addition, the speaker described in detail the functioning mechanisms of the Estonian CIT in Poland (corporate income tax (CIT), dividend tax, general CIT taxation, Estonian CIT), corporate income tax (CIT) – 2020, personal income taxation (RIT) (per % of the tax at the I and II tax thresholds), taxation of income of individuals registered as a sole proprietorship in Poland (RIT) (tax scale, single tax, fixed amount of tax, tax card) and tax on income from individuals ( RIT) – 2020.
