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The jurisdiction of the Tax Office - how to properly determine?

The basic legal act determining the jurisdiction of the tax office is the Tax Ordinance. See what changes have entered into force since 2016 and how to now determine the competent Tax Office? Read the article below and find out more!

The jurisdiction of the tax office for the taxpayer

The jurisdiction of the tax office is defined in Art. 17 § 1 of the Tax Ordinance, according to which, unless the tax laws provide otherwise, the local jurisdiction of the tax authorities is determined according to the place of residence or the address of the taxpayer's seat.

The competence of the tax office means determining to which office the taxpayer is obliged to submit declarations and to which he should pay the tax. VAT taxpayers indicate the addressee on the VAT-7 and VAT-7K declarations in the tax office field.

Important!

The competence of the tax office is important when choosing the right bank account - tax will be transferred to this account.

Competence of the office until the end of 2015

In 2015, Art. 3 sec. 1 of the VAT Act stipulated that the tax office competent for the purposes of VAT settlement was the office to which the taxpayer was subject due to the place of performance of activities subject to tax on goods and services. This provision meant that many taxpayers were obliged to settle accounts in two different institutions.

The reason for this situation was the different jurisdiction of the tax office for income tax purposes and for VAT purposes. In the case of natural persons, for income tax purposes, the competent authority is the one competent according to the place of residence of the taxpayer, while in the case of, for example, companies - the office competent according to the company's registered office address. As for VAT, until 2015, taxpayers were obliged to settle their settlements in the office competent for the place of conducting taxable activities, e.g. the place of business activity.

Properties of the office for VAT purposes from 2016

The changes that entered into force after January 1, 2016, repealed the aforementioned Art. 3 of the VAT Act. Moreover, the provisions of the Tax Ordinance have been applied since 2016. The competent office for the purpose of submitting VAT-7 and VAT-7K declarations is:

for natural persons - the office competent for the taxpayer's residence address,
for persons other than natural persons, e.g.civil partnerships - the office competent for the company's registered office address.

Therefore, it should be stated that the taxpayer is obliged to settle accounts with one office both for income tax purposes and for VAT purposes.

Example 1.

Entrepreneur Jan Kowalski runs a business. The taxpayer's residence address is Opole, while the shop where the sale of goods (taxable activities) takes place is located in Wrocław.

The taxpayer was obliged to settle accounts in 2015:

for income tax purposes at the office competent for the place of residence of the taxpayer, i.e. in Opole,
for VAT purposes at the office competent for the place of performing taxable activities, i.e. in the case of Kowalski in Wrocław.

Kowalski is obliged to settle accounts in 2016:

for income tax purposes at the office competent for the taxpayer's place of residence, i.e. in Opole,
for VAT purposes at the office competent according to the place of residence - also in Opole.

Example 2.

A civil law partnership runs a company whose registered office and place of performing taxable activities are in Krakow.

In 2015, the company was obliged to pay for:

for income tax purposes in the competent office according to the company's registered office address,
for VAT purposes at the office competent according to the company's registered office address.

In 2016, the company is still obliged to settle accounts with one office competent according to the company's registered office address, both for income tax purposes and for VAT purposes.

Changing the properties of the office without the need to update the VAT-R

The change in the properties of the office results from a change in tax regulations, so the taxpayer is not obliged to submit an update of the VAT-R.

To sum up, from 2016 the office competent for the purpose of submitting VAT-7 and VAT-7K declarations is the office competent for the place of residence of the taxpayer (for natural persons) and the office competent for the address of the company's registered office (for persons other than natural persons, e.g. companies).