Deferral of income tax according to the PIT and CIT Act

According to the information provided on the website of the Prime Minister, the draft Act amending the act on corporate income tax, the act on personal income tax and some other acts was adopted. The planned modifications include assumptions regarding the principles of deferring taxation of income from an in-kind contribution in the form of intellectual property to a capital company by scientific institutions.

Development of cooperation between enterprises and universities

The amendment to the provisions on tax deferral will apply to entrepreneurs both subject to the Corporate Income Tax Act and natural persons. The aim of the assumptions is to create a certain impulse influencing the development of cooperation between business entities and research units.

The existing reforms of science and higher education have only provided support in the development of a group of young scientists, patenting processes, or commercialization (implementation) of scientific research results. The discussed change, on the other hand, is to contribute to the creation of a mechanism encouraging entrepreneurs to cooperate intensively with the scientific community, due to the lack of the need to invest their own funds from the generated profit - at least in the first period of implementation of a given solution.

In both income tax acts (PIT and CIT), it is intended to introduce deferral of taxation of income obtained from making an in-kind contribution to a capital company, i.e. patents and other rights within the meaning of the Act on industrial property, copyrights, know-how, and licenses. In other words, it is foreseen to tax revenues from taking up shares of the company for a non-cash contribution, however, applying the deferral rule for a maximum period of up to 5 years from the date of obtaining a given income. The in-kind contribution, on the other hand, should constitute commercialized intellectual property. This will mainly apply to contributions made by universities, the Polish Academy of Sciences (Polish Academy of Sciences), research institutes, companies with the participation of given entities, and even natural persons - creators, artists, etc. The catalog of intellectual property and know-how will be limited only to these items which have the greatest potential for innovation.

Voluntary transfer of 1% of CIT to scientific institutions

In addition to the above-mentioned change, it is also planned to introduce a mechanism for voluntary transfer of 1% of corporate income tax.Due to the fact that the financing of the research and development zone from extra-budgetary funds amounts to only 30% (much less than in other EU countries - where this indicator is on average over 50%), this solution may have a positive impact on the development of ties between economic entities and research units.

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At the same time, it can be stated that the presented solution will contribute to increasing the interest of entrepreneurs in the commercialization of research results. Thanks to this, they will be able to establish cooperation with research units whose scientific solutions are in line with the scope of their activities.

The proposed changes were accepted by both entrepreneurs and scientific institutions. Therefore, one can expect increased cooperation between the entities concerned with the entry into force of the regulations.