In a recent Polish Supreme Administrative Court’s award it was confirmed that a non-UCITS fund should benefit from the Polish CIT exemption for investment funds, even if their corporate manager is contracted. The award removes the unequal treatment of Cypriot PICIS funds receiving incomes from Polish companies. Tax authorities had a tendency to claim that, due to the different type of management scheme, PICIS funds were not benefitting from Polish CIT exemption.
Poland did not implement the AIMF Directive and, based on its country regulation, has discriminated against foreign special funds which are not similar to Polish investment funds or are not UCITS in type.
This approach was revised and the Supreme Court differentiated that if the management, which might also be contracted, is a corporate entity, a PICIS fund’s incomes are exempted from Polish CIT.
This award is also applicable to Luxemburg special investment funds whose applications were rejected due to their type of management not being similar to that in Polish funds.
Based on this award, any payment to a special investment fund (incl. alternative investment funds compliant with the AIMF Directive) which is managed by a corporate manager should be exempted from Polish CIT.
If you are considering investing in Polish securities, you might be able to secure 19% of the capital payment by applying for the tax exemption. For payments where CIT was withheld, there is a chance to claim for a tax overpayment. We have extensive experience in assisting foreign investors with WHT refund cases in Poland. The team has successfully handled more than 200 tax reclaim proceedings for EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA investors.
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