Standard Audit File for Tax

This chapter provides the overview and describes the maintenance process for Standard Audit File for Tax in Infor LN 10.7 for Poland localization.
Commencing 1st of July 2016, new legal acts on availing tax data to tax authorities came into effect. Following Art. 193a of Tax Ordinance, taxpayers who keep tax records using IT software are obliged to furnish the data available in the form of an electronic report in these scenarios:
  • Request of tax control authorities
  • Tax/fiscal audit control
  • Tax proceedings
  • Verification activities

The report is generated as Standard Audit File for Tax, an electronic file structured according to the guidelines set by the Ministry of Finance (SAF-T or SAF for short).

The legal duties take effect on various dates for various taxpayer groups (following the definitions in Chapter 7 of the Freedom of Business Activity Act), as listed below.

Since the 1st of July 2016, SAF-T is obligatory for the so-called ‘large taxpayers’ that:
  • Employ at least 250 employees
  • Or have a yearly turnover of at least € 50 million or their total assets exceed € 43 million.
Since the 1st of January 2017, SAF-T VAT reports are obligatory for medium-size taxpayers that:
  • Employ fewer than 250 employees
  • Or have a yearly turnover of maximum € 50 million or their total assets do not exceed € 43 million
As well as for small taxpayers that:
  • Employ fewer than 50 employees
  • Or have a yearly turnover of maximum € 10 million or their total assets do not exceed € 2 million

Full SAF-T reporting for small and medium-size taxpayers is required as of the 1st of July 2018.

Since the 1st of January 2018, SAF-T VAT reports are obligatory for micro-taxpayers that:
  • Employ fewer than 10 employees
  • Or have a yearly turnover of maximum € 2 million or their total assets do not exceed € 2 million

Full SAF-T reporting is for them required as of the 1st of July 2018.

On the 1st of October 2020, new legal acts on the format of SAF data submitted to the authorities come into effect.

Pursuant the Polish Act amending the Act on the Goods and Services Tax and other Acts, changes were introduced to the Polish Act of 11th March 2004 on the Goods and Services Tax (Polish Journal of Laws of 2018, item 2174, as amended) with the purpose of replacing the VAT-7 and VAT-7K goods and services tax declarations with a new SAF file (commonly known as “VDEK”). The new files shall contain information allowing for the replacement of the existing electronic VAT declarations and JPK_VAT files.

The new SAF file will be an electronic document, common to VAT declarations and VAT registers. It will be submitted by all active taxpayers registered for VAT. The deadline for submitting the file will be the same as for filing VAT declarations (the same so-called scheme for VAT declarations and registers). Taxpayers settling their taxes on a monthly basis shall file one document consisting of the declaration and register part, whereas taxpayers following the quarterly mode of settlement will also submit their SAF files for monthly periods, but for the first two months of each quarter, the declaration part will not have to be filled.

There will be two variants of the new SAF file:
  • JPK_V7M – for taxpayers settling their goods and services tax on a monthly basis
  • JPK_V7K – for taxpayers settling their goods and services tax on a quarterly basis

From the 1st of October 2020, you will only be able to file the VAT-7 and VAT-7K declarations in the form of the new SAF file.

For the corrections of declarations and registers filed for settlement periods preceding settlement under the new rules, you should follow the legal regulations applicable for the period for which the correction of declaration or register is submitted (i.e. corrections of declarations and JPK_VAT submitted according to the previous rules are also submitted according to those rules).