Deadlines for preparing TP documentation are drawing near

by Mateusz Zapalski

26 November 2021

Deadlines for preparing transfer pricing (TP) documentation are drawing near
Taxpayers obliged to prepare the Local File and whose financial year corresponds to the calendar year have time until 31 December 2021 to file the transfer pricing report (TPR form) and the statement on preparing TP documentation.

Statement on preparing TP documentation

In the statement on preparing TP documentation, an associated entity declares that:

• it has prepared a Local File;
• the transfer prices covered by the Local File are on terms that would be agreed between independent entities.

The statement on preparing TP documentation needs to be signed by the following persons using their electronic signatures:

• a natural person – if the associated entity is a natural person;
• a person authorised to act on behalf of a branch office – if a foreign associated entity has a branch office in Poland;
• an authorised representative – other associated entities.

The signed statement is submitted by one person via the ePUAP platform. This can be a management board member or another person empowered to act on behalf of the entity. It is best to send the statement from the entity’s account (trusted profile) rather than from the private account of the person filing the statement. The entity’s account can be created by any of its employee who has a trusted profile and who is authorised to act in this scope.

TPR form

The transfer pricing report may be prepared in electronic form only and has to be filed with the Head of the National Revenue Administration. The TPR form may be signed by a representative authorised to sign e-returns (UPL-1 form). In the report, the taxpayer must provide data regarding controlled transactions whose values exceeded the statutory thresholds in the financial year (10 million zloty for transactions involving goods and for financial transactions and 2 million zloty for transactions involving services and for other transactions).

The TPR form must be also filed by entities exempt from the obligation to prepare the Local File by virtue of Article 11n of the CIT Act (these are mainly entities making controlled transactions with domestic entities, which have not recognised a tax loss, have not carried on business in a special economic zone and have not enjoyed exemptions available to support new investment projects).

What should be included in the TPR form

Taxpayers should disclose e.g. the following details in the TPR form:

• the purpose of filing the report and the period to which it refers;
• identification details of the entity filing the report and the entity for which the report is filed;
• profitability ratios of the entity for which the report is filed;
• information about associated entities and about controlled transactions made with those entities, such as transaction type, interest rate (in the case of financial transactions), profit (loss) on individual controlled transactions;
• method used to verify transfer prices, e.g. transfer pricing method, type of comparison (internal/external), type of financial ratio which the taxpayer has applied to verify the price, benchmarking study results.

The information disclosed in the TPR form should match the data obtained in the benchmarking study carried out by the taxpayer.

Penalties

Failure to file the TPR form and the statement on preparing TP documentation on time is liable to severe penalties under the fiscal crime laws (revenue authorities may impose those penalties in addition to the tax liability of 10-30% of understated income or overstated loss).

If the taxpayer does not file the TPR form or the statement on preparing TP documentation at all or within a statutory deadline, of if the information contained in those documents is not true, the penalty may even reach 720 day-fine units. In less serious cases, revenue authorities may levy a fine for a fiscal misdemeanour.