Polish Retail tax hits EU brick wall

In mid-October, the Polish government announced that it would suspend the implementation of its planned retail trade tax until January 1st 2018. This followed a decision by the European Commission to launch an in-depth investigation into the proposed levy on the Polish retail sector. This suspension has met the Commission’s demands, which require Poland to suspend the tax until it has concluded its assessment. No more (un)wanted state aid The Commission’s main concern is that the progressive rate based tax would give companies with a low turnover an advantage over their competitors in breach of EU state aid rules. A similar investigation was started in July 2015 into the Hungarian food chain inspection fee and its tax on tobacco sales, which were also based on a progressive turnover rate. The conclusions announced in July this year were that the Hungarian regulations were in breach of EU rules. “Hungary has a full right to finance the cost of its food inspection a