DGP: Paczkomaty taxed? There are disputes about it
Parcel machines are springing up all over Poland like mushrooms after the rain. However, it is still unclear whether they are taxed as constructions or not following last year's amendment to the construction law, writes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Michał Nielepkowicz, tax adviser, partner in Thedy & Partners, in his comment for the newspaper, pointed out that in disputable issues concerning the scope of real estate taxation, the problem is still the reference in the tax regulations to the Construction Law, where the definitions are very broad and a given object, which may be regarded as a construction or a structure within the meaning of the Construction Law, does not necessarily have to be subject to real estate tax as a structure.
In order to answer questions about the taxation of parcel machines, it is necessary to know some history in the approach to parcel machines, including the amendment to the Construction Law, which came into force in September 2020.
Well, until September 2020, parcel machines were not explicitly indicated in the Construction Law. Hence, there were disputes whether a parcel machine is a building object. On the grounds of the Construction Law, it was assumed that a parcel machine is a building object – for the purpose of regulating the construction process. This, in turn, generated another problem, namely, whether the classification of the cash dispenser as a building structure within the meaning of the Construction Law also causes its taxation with 2% property tax – as a building structure.
Since September last year – thanks to the aforementioned amendment – the package selling machine is an example of a device, the construction of which does not require a building permit or notification. Although it does not directly resolve the doubts, whether the parcel machine ceased to be a building object and a construction within the meaning of the Construction Law (which would open the way to its taxation under the real estate tax), however, reading the amendment as a whole, it seems that the whole point was to exclude parcel machines from the regulations of the Construction Law. In this situation, since the parcel machine should not be considered, in the light of the currently binding regulations, as a building object and a structure, it should not be subject to the real estate tax – as a structure.
Regardless of that, it is worth remembering about two more issues. Firstly, the parcel machine is a technical device with foundations, in which case only the foundations of the technical device may be subject to taxation as a construction. Secondly, there is a general condition in the definition of a building object – its erection using building materials. A parcel machine does not meet this condition.
The entire article in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna dated 22 July 2021, page B2