OUR NEWS! As TV Republika has learned, Andrzej Domański’s ministry is working in parallel on two amendments to the excise law concerning e-cigarettes. The first, forced by distributors of Chinese e-cigarettes, hits only one American company, affects 1% of the market and is expected to come into force two weeks after the adoption of the law. The second, which is yet to be entered into the government’s work program, is to close the tax loophole, which is successfully used by Chinese detachable vapes in order not to pay tax at all. This draft introduces a 6-month transition period … How much will the budget lose from this? According to our information, the Ministry of Finance, although it has been inundated with critical remarks about the first draft, does not want to withdraw from it and will push through both acts. This will result in an increasing chaos in excise regulations and a deterioration in relations with the United States.
According to our informants, the second, latest project purpose is to close the backdoor, eagerly exploited by distributors of Chinese e-cigarettes, selling devices in parts and on separate receipts. All this in order not to pay an additional tax of PLN 40, introduced in July. The latest idea assumes that a tax of PLN 40 will be imposed on all so-called pods, i.e. e-cigarette containers, including empty ones, intended for filling.
This is another amendment patch concerning e-cigarettes, which the Minister of Economy and Finance plans to implement this year. Earlier, under pressure from among others the ZPBV (Association of Vaping Industry Employers), the Ministry began work on the UD308 project, presented in December 2025, which ultimately boils down to double taxation of one product – Philip Morris e-cigarettes, operating on the principle of induction and on which the distributor already pays an additional tax of PLN 40 per device.
Interestingly, according to publicly available information, before placing the product on the market, this company asked the Minister of Finance for a Binding Excise Information (Wiążąca Informacja Akcyzowa – WIA) confirming that only the main device, and not the one, will be subject to the PLN 40 tax, and it received such a decision from the Minister of Finance. However, as you can see, the Minister of Finance is fickle and after 4 months from the issuance of the WIA, it changed its mind and prepared a special act, which was sent for public consultation on 22 December 2025.
During these consultations on the UD308 project, which ended a few days ago, almost all economic institutions and social organizations heavily criticized the idea of the Domański’s ministry. The allegations include, among other discrimination against a product based on induction due to the creation of regulations only for this one product, covering about 1% of the market with the new regulations and leaving a large part of the e-cigarette market untaxed at all, due to the e-cigarette technology used, or clever circumvention of taxation by sellers by selling e-cigarettes by parts and using separate fiscal receipts, and violation of the agreement between Poland and the USA on investment protection.
However, most of the criticism concerned the extremely short transition period for the sale of inventories, amounting to only two weeks. This is a record when it comes to excise regulations, as previous amendments provided for transitional periods from 3 to even 9 months. As we have learned, the Ministry of Finance has been shocked by the number of comments submitted and is still delaying the publication of all positions.
For the government of Donald Tusk, which is keen to emphasize its commitment to good relations with the United States, the red flag should be, first of all, the strong position of the American Chamber of Commerce, which confirms the position of Philip Morris and warns the Deputy Minister of Finance, Jarosław Neneman, that the UD308 project may constitute a violation of the signed agreement with the United States on the mutual protection of investments. “Due to the very narrow circle of addressees of the proposed regulations, in particular their practical impact on a single product, the draft UD308 may raise doubts as to the preservation of the principle of predictability and stability of the legal environment for foreign investments,” warns the American Chamber of Commerce and emphasizes that the proposed two-week transition period is “extremely short“.
What is most interesting is that the latest second draft of the Ministry of Finance, concerning additional taxation of pods, would be discussed by Tusk’s government in two months at the earliest and would enter into force only six months after its adoption. And this means that Poland discriminates entities from the United States, hitting one of the largest American investors in our region directly, with distributors of Chinese e-cigarettes placed in advantageous market position! This would be a fatal move in a difficult geopolitical puzzle, which would certainly worsen the relations between the current government team and Washington.
It is worth considering that the latest strategy of the US War Department includes limiting the presence of American soldiers in Europe, and Donald Trump directly announces that only those allies who respect US economic interests will be able to count on the US support.