Tax expert Krzysztof Rutkowski warns that the government\u2019s new windfall tax on fuel sales is retroactively targeting private importers, threatening to force the closure of hundreds of gas stations nationwide. <\/p>\n
The new tax on extraordinary profits from fuel sales is set to fall most heavily on private Polish businesses. While the regulation formally covers 20 to 30 major fuel importers and producers, it is the small, private players who lack the capital to absorb the costs. Because these companies operate on some of Europe’s lowest margins, they are essentially just conduits for costs that will inevitably reach the consumer.<\/p>\n
The arithmetic behind the tax is telling: approximately 60 percent of the burden will fall on the state-controlled entity Orlen. In this scenario, the government is effectively taxing itself, with the funds returning to the state budget as dividends. Private firms, however, have no such financial safety net, making them the true victims of this policy.<\/p>\n
The structure of the tax is fundamentally flawed because it is calculated based on revenue and margins rather than actual profit. By imposing a 60 percent rate\u2014which effectively reaches 79 percent when accounting for the inability to deduct the levy from CIT\u2014the government is engaging in what amounts to state-sanctioned confiscation. Large, integrated players may be able to absorb the blow, but small importers face a total loss of liquidity.<\/p>\n
Unlike other European countries that have limited windfall taxes to oil extraction and processing, Poland is applying this levy directly to fuel importers. This approach ignores lessons from Germany, where a similar tax on the energy sector was halted by an international arbitration tribunal. By proceeding with this policy, the Polish government risks losing expensive, long-term legal battles against foreign-controlled operators, forcing the state treasury to pay damages from taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n
The tax threatens to trigger a severe liquidity crisis, potentially forcing the closure of 750 to 800 gas stations. This will directly diminish fuel availability and jeopardize jobs across the supply chain. Paradoxically, while the government aims to recover “extraordinary profits,” the policy punishes firms simply for achieving better annual results, while simultaneously ignoring the financial losses many of these same companies sustained under previous government-imposed price caps.<\/p>\n
The legislation suffers from serious legal deficiencies, most notably its retroactive application. Although the bill was introduced for August, it taxes income retrospectively starting from March, violating the principle of non-retroactivity. Furthermore, the rushed legislative process\u2014which lasted only 48 hours\u2014lacked a thorough impact assessment. The current “protective” amendments are merely cosmetic, failing to prevent the potential confiscation of a company’s entire income.<\/p>\n
With the state budget facing a deficit of 271 billion PLN for 2026, the tax appears to be a desperate fiscal patch rather than a sound economic measure. Given the current political makeup of the Sejm, where an override of a presidential veto is unlikely, the only real hope for stopping the policy lies with the President. A veto is the only mechanism capable of preventing lasting damage to the fuel market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tax expert Krzysztof Rutkowski warns that the government\u2019s new windfall tax on fuel sales is retroactively targeting private importers, threatening to force the closure of hundreds of gas stations nationwide. The Disproportionate Impact on Private Importers The new tax on extraordinary profits from fuel sales is set to fall most heavily on private Polish businesses. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}