Wzrost roli podatków pośrednich w Polsce

Fifteen years into its economic transformation, Poland has emerged as the European Union member state with the lowest level of fiscalism (in terms of GNP percentage accounting for taxes and social security contributions). At the same time, Poland is among countries with the highest social security premiums and indirect taxes (VAT and excise tax). If this tax structure in Poland were to be retained, or, worse still, if the tax burden were to be further increased, this could have adverse social and economic consequences. The nature of indirect taxes is such that the less affluent the household, the greater the tax burden on the household’s income. The ever increasing level of indirect taxation results in the least affluent households in Poland having to bear the greatest tax burdens, a fact fully confirmed by studies of household expenditures in the years 1994-1999. Contrary to the popular perception of the role of indirect taxes in economy (and of VAT in particular), this role is not neutral. Accordingly, it is being proposed to gradually lower the basic VAT rate during the next, say, 10 years, from the current 22% to 17%. One result of this move will be improved corporate liquidity, thanks to the “liberation” of part of the taxes due. These “liberated” sums could be used to finance company development or investments. Lowering the basic VAT rate will also boost consumer demand by lowering prices. In turn, the stimulation of consumer demand will improve the fiscal efficiency of VAT, ensuring a stead flow of receipts into the state budget. An urgent problem that requires resolving is the growing volume of tax arrears, especially arrears of indirect taxes. It appears that the development and implementation of a suitable remedial program is called for, considering that tax arrears in 2004 (close to 20 billion PLN) were almost 12 times the figure in 1995. It is also advisable to discover why excise tax on fuels is accounting for a constantly decreasing percentage of total excise tax income in Poland. While income from excise tax on fuels was constantly rising (nominally) in the period from 1994 to 2004, its share in the total income is constantly dwindling, and this despite the healthy GNP growth rate experienced by this country.