- The Ministry of Finance hopes that the European Commission will agree to lower the VAT rate for beauty services to 8% from April 1, 2024.
- Similar regulations already exist in Ireland and have not been challenged by Brussels.
- Experts believe that the Irish example is not applicable to Poland as the EU directive does not allow for preferential VAT rates for the entire beauty sector.
- The proposed VAT reduction has not been officially published yet.
- Experts are skeptical about the plans, stating that VAT rate reductions may only apply to goods and services listed in Annex III of the EU VAT directive, which currently only includes hairdressing services.
- Going beyond the scope of Annex III may result in infringement proceedings by the European Commission and potential financial penalties.
- Ireland currently has two reduced VAT rates for the beauty sector: 9% and 13.5%.
- The Polish Ministry of Finance refers to the Irish example, stating that it is one of the two reduced rates.
- The interpretation of Article 105a of the directive, which came into effect on April 6, 2022, is crucial in determining whether Ireland is at risk of infringement proceedings.
Source: podatki.gazetaprawna.pl
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
