Anti-crisis shield 2.0: more funds and reliefs for entrepreneurs

Coronavirus: anti-crisis shield 2.0 regulations supporting business

The amendment to the act on special solutions related to preventing and combating COVID-19, called the anti-crisis shield 2.0, assumes clarification of the provisions introduced so far. The new regulations provide for, inter alia:

• broadening the circle of entrepreneurs entitled to take advantage of the 3-month exemption from payment of social security contributions to include entrepreneurs employing from 10 to 49 people, with the exemption applying only to 50% of the total amount of unpaid contributions shown in the settlement declaration submitted for a given month,
• exemption from ZUS contributions for 3 months for all social cooperatives paying contributions, regardless of the number of employees,
• repeated (max. three times) granting of the downtime benefit, i.e. extension of assistance for persons working under civil law contracts from 1 month to 3 months,
• possibility of granting loans by ARP S.A. to entrepreneurs in a difficult financial situation with a 15-month grace period in repayment (condition: the company cannot undergo any restructuring),
• increasing the availability of loans to micro-entrepreneurs (condition: continuing operations for 3 months from the date of granting the loan),
• the possibility of retaining the tax status of a capital group for taxpayers who will suffer negative economic consequences in 2020 due to COVID-19 and will not meet the condition of profitability and lack of tax arrears for this reason,
• the possibility of renegotiating bank credit conditions by all entrepreneurs, regardless of their size,
• extension of the deadlines for submitting local and group transfer pricing documentation until 30 September and 31 December 2020 respectively,
• introduction of the principle of proportionality within the scope of ARP support - the amount of support will depend on the actual financial costs incurred by an entrepreneur as a result of the declaration of an epidemic hazard state, as well as the scale of conducted operations.

The new shield also provides, according to the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, 100 billion under the PRF to protect Polish companies and workplaces, including:

• about PLN 25 billion for microenterprises - up to a maximum of PLN 324 000 for one microenterprise (about PLN 70-90 000 on average) for three years, of which up to 75 percent are non-refundable amounts,
• about PLN 50 billion for small and medium-sized companies.

Large and medium-sized enterprises may receive up to PLN 3.5 million from the PFR for one company (average PLN 1.9 million).

The anti-crisis shield - how to benefit from it - View recording