Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accuse the Belarussian regime of manufacturing the humanitarian crisis on the eastern border of the European Union, and the three countries also point to the Kremlin as a supporter of this action. At the same time Russian minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov criticised Poland for its treatment of migrants. Meanwhile, Aleksander Lukashenko who recently spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expecting another call from this world leader.
Only a few weeks ago Poland challenged the EU’s top court decisions as creating law based on precedents and thus breaching the EU treaties. In return the European Court of Justice punished the country with a fine amounting to 1 million EURO a day. According to lawyers, today’s ruling is a follow up. The ECJ ruled that the Polish rules which allow the justice minister to assign judges to the higher criminal courts, or to remove them, without stating his reasons, violate EU law.
President Andrzej Duda has signed a bill on changes to the tax system. According to the new regulations – the annual tax-free allowance will increase to 30 thousand zlotys, and income above 120 thousand zlotys will be taxed at 32%.. The aim of the act is to “create a friendly and fair tax system”.
New tax rules that will benefit the lowest earners but will hit those earning higher wages will take effect in Poland from 2022 after President Andrzej Duda rubber-stamped the changes. The new tax legislation, promoted under the government’s New Deal reform package, includes two major changes to the Polish tax system: The tax-free allowance for individual taxpayers will be raised to PLN 30,000 from PLN 3,091.
The 9 per cent healthcare insurance contribution will no longer be tax-deductible, which will raise the effective tax rate by the same percentage. The tax reform will benefit low-earners and old-age pensioners, while high earners are set to lose out. The changes will be neutral to negative for most entrepreneurs, business lobbies say.
