Act amending the functioning of the register of VAT payers, called whitelist and effective from 1 September 2019, entered into force on 1 July 2020.

Whitelist of VAT taxpayers - what is it?

On 1 September 2019, a list of information on VAT taxpayers kept by the head of National Tax Administration was introduced, which aims to help companies in efficient verification of contractors. The list replaced the previously functioning lists of VAT taxpayers: registered and unregistered, as well as deleted and restored to the VAT register.

The white list allows to:

• check the status of the contractor as an active VAT taxpayer,
• have an insight into the history of the contractor as a VAT taxpayer,
• confirm the bank account number to which the payment should be made.

What changes after 1 July?

 At the end of June, the President signed an act amending the rules of functioning of the register of VAT payers, which entered into force on 1 July 2020.

 The amending Act provides for, among others:

•  extension of the time for submitting a notification about making payments incorrectly - from 3 to 7 days from the date of the transfer order,
• submission of a notification to the authority proper to the taxpayer who made the incorrect payment, 
• a one-time notification for payments to a given account, even if after submitting such a notification payment would still be made to the wrong account,
• exemption from verification of payments arising from intra-EU transactions for the purchase of goods, imports (both imports of goods and services) and deliveries of goods settled by the buyer.

When making payments, one needs to remember to check whether:

•  the contractor is on the whitelist of VAT taxpayers. This applies to companies with which one has not previously cooperated. In this way it is possible to find out if a contractor is an active VAT taxpayer.
• the bank account number provided on the invoice is the same as the account number on the VAT whitelist. If the invoice is not the same, it is advised to clarify this with the contractor before making the payment.
• one’s company's account numbers on the whitelist of VAT payers are correct, when accepting payments over 15.000 PLN. The lack of or an incorrect account may make contractors who will pay for goods or services after 31 December 2019 liable to disciplinary actions.