Council of Ministers adopts draft amendment to the Act on Supporting New Investments

The Council of Ministers has adopted a draft amendment to the Act on Supporting New Investments. Most of the changes proposed during public consultations have been retained, including:

• the obligation to obtain an opinion from the Head of the National Revenue Administration (KAS) for the largest investments, although the threshold of maximum state aid has been raised from PLN 25 million to PLN 40 million,
• a ban on amending a support decision after the deadline for meeting a given condition has passed, limited however to eligible costs, employment and job retention, and investment completion,
• the option to reduce employment by up to 20% with regard to new employees. This limit will not apply, for example, to the employment retention period.

Consequences of revoking a support decision remain unchanged

However, the consequences of revoking a support decision for businesses holding more than one decision have not been changed. The obligation to repay the maximum permissible state aid, rather than the support actually used, may lead to disproportionate financial consequences.

“The lack of change in this area raises serious doubts. A restrictive interpretation leads to an extremely unfavourable situation in which a business may be required to pay a hypothetical, rather than the actual, amount of aid it has used,” says Łukasz Łebski, Director in the Grants & Incentives team.

It is worth waiting for the final wording

Please bear in mind that this is still a draft act, so it is worth waiting for its final wording.

Do you have questions about how the amendment may affect your support decision? Contact Łukasz Łebski: lukasz.lebski@thedy.pl.