Dentons has successfully represented the interests of Porsche Inter Auto Polska in multiple cases concerning excise taxation on intra-community acquisitions of passenger cars before the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw and the Supreme Administrative Court.
According to Dentons, “Porsche Inter Auto Polska regularly carries out ICAs of passenger cars on which it pays excise tax in Poland. When the company meets certain annual sales targets, it is granted discounts on the cars it has purchased and, as a result, receives correcting invoices reducing the originally charged selling price.” The disputes with the tax authority concerned “whether or not the post-transaction discount it received should affect the excise tax base for ICAs of passenger cars. Tax authorities have, for many years, consistently ruled that taxpayers cannot reduce the tax base and recover any overpaid excise tax even if they are granted an after-sale discount. The administrative courts have been unwavering in upholding the tax authorities’ decisions in this regard since 2015.”
The firm’s tax litigation team argued that “taxpayers should have the right to adjust the excise tax base for ICAs of passenger cars. They pointed out that the tax base refers to ‘the amount the taxpayer is required to pay’ which, in this case, is the price of the car that the parties ultimately agreed to.”
According to the firm, “on May 12, 2022, the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw handed down landmark judgments in 20 cases. It ruled in favor of Porsche Inter Auto Polska and confirmed that it is entitled to adjust the excise tax base for ICAs of passenger cars. These judgments are yet to become final and non-appealable.”
“Then, on January 12, 2023, Dentons represented the client in eight cases before the Supreme Administrative Court which overturned earlier judgments, issued by the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw in 2018, concerning earlier periods together with the relevant decisions of the tax authorities of both instances, thereby upholding the reversal of the jurisprudential position favorable to taxpayers,” the firm reported.
The Dentons team included Counsel Aleksandra Rutkowska and Senior Associate Aleksander Brzozowski.
