On May 10, 2018, the Parliament adopted the Act on supporting new investments (hereinafter the Act). Although the shape of the abovementioned Act has been slightly changed, the law still extends the special economic zone benefits to Poland's entire area.
The actual wording of the regulations adopted by the Parliament had been modified during the parliamentary proceedings in relation to the governmental draft (we wrote about the project adopted by the Council of Ministers in earlier Tax alert).
The most important modification from the perspective of investors having several permits on conducting business activity within the SEZ territory was included in article 13. 6 - 7 of the Act, according to which the settlement / utilization of the public aid will take place according to the order of obtaining permits or decisions on support.
Due to the fact that the minimum investment criteria will be set in the decree on granting state aid on the basis of the decisions on support, the minimum quantitative and qualitative criteria previously provided remain valid (obviously, any possible changes in this area cannot be ruled out at a later stage of the legislative proceedings).
Minimum amount of CAPEX value depends on the unemployment level in certain county; more precisely the relationship of the unemployment level in the county to average unemployment level in the country (as of know - 7%).
for micro-enterprises by 98%, for small entrepreneurs by 95%, for medium-sized enterprises by 80%.
What about investors functioning in the existing SEZ?
The adopted Act has no impact on the position of entrepreneurs already operating in the existing special economic zones.
The above means that until the end of 2026, these entrepreneurs will operate under the regime of the Act on Special Economic Zones. If an investor would like to obtain a permit on the grounds of the old/existing regulations - there is still such a possibility, due to the fact that all proceedings regarding issuance of the SEZ permit, started before new regulations would enter into force should be processed still under the current regime.
The Act, with the exception of one provision, is to be entered into force after 14 days from the day of its announcement.