From 1 January 2019, CIT and PIT taxpayers may in exceptional cases use copies of residency certificates when paying abroad for receivables from intangible services. Unfortunately, this option applies only to payments made within the annual limit of PLN 10,000 for one contractor.
Residence certificates allow you to confirm the registered office of the contractor for tax purposes and are a condition for the application of tax exemptions from the tax laws or reduced rates from double taxation agreements. By the end of 2018, in each case, there was a requirement to present original residency certificates. It was not always possible or it was very difficult, for example when taxpayers paid for advertising services provided in bulk as Facebook services. Obtaining the original certificate of residence from such a giant in the case of low value transactions was a practically unfeasible task for the accountant. From January 1, 2019, this is not necessary and only a copy of this certificate is enough (eg a document scan downloaded from the contractor's website).
It should be remembered that the possibility of using copies concerns situations in which:
receivables are due to intangible services, e.g. advisory, accounting, legal services, market research, advertising, management, data processing;
the amount of receivables paid to the same entity did not exceed PLN 10,000 annually;
information resulting from the copy of the certificate does not raise reasonable doubts as to the compliance with the facts.
In practice, copies of certificates can therefore be used when we use the services of a foreign entity of little value and in an incidental manner. In other cases, you still need to obtain original certificates from contractors. Source: Art. 41 par. 9e of the Act of 26 July 1991 on Personal Income Tax (PIT) Art. 26 par. 1n of the Act of February 15, 1992 on Corporate Income Tax (CIT)