Beneficiary - definition
A beneficiary is a natural person, a legal person or an organizational unit without legal personality:
- to which the tax scheme is made available,
- which has a tax scheme implemented,
- which is prepared to implement a tax scheme,
- which has taken action to implement the tax scheme.
The beneficiary is a taxpayer regardless of legal form, place of residence, seat or management. In the case of tax transparent entities (in particular partnerships), its partners will also be beneficiaries if the arrangement has tax consequences for them. A beneficiary may be a tax payer who receives a tax benefit consisting in the absence of an obligation to collect tax. The obligation to report cross-border schemes applies to all taxpayers. In the case of domestic schemes, it occurs only if the so-called qualified beneficiary criterion is met, i.e. if the taxpayer is not obliged to report the tax on the cross-border schemes:
- the income/costs or the accounting value of the beneficiary's assets exceed EUR 10 million, or
- the beneficiary is related to such an entity, or
- an agreement on items or rights with a market value excesses EUR 2.5 million.
Obligations of the beneficiary
By 30 September 2019, the beneficiary is obliged to provide information on the tax scheme whose implementation started after 25 June 2018. (for cross-border schemes) and after 1 November 2018 (for national schemes).
The beneficiary is not obliged to provide information on the scheme if the promoter has already correctly reported the scheme and informed the beneficiary in an appropriate manner.
How to submit a form?
The information on the tax scheme should be sent electronically to the National Tax Administration using MDR 1 form.
Sanctions
Non-compliance with the MDR provisions is subject to a fine of up to PLN 20 million. In order to avoid the risk of breach of the provisions, it is recommended to implement due diligence procedures to counteract the failure to meet the statutory MDR obligations. In the case of some entities that meet the conditions specified in the Tax Ordinance, having such a procedure is mandatory and its absence is subject to a fine of up to PLN 2 million.
