Poland’s new Agriculture Minister – Stanisław Kalemba has announced that Polish farmers will be paying income tax from 2014.“Whether we want it or not, EU policy is going in this direction,” Kalemba has told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Up until this year, farmers had various concessions as to what they pay in taxes and insurance in Poland. Starting from February, however, farmers have had to pay social insurance – the level depending on how large their farm is. In November 2011, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said following the victory of his Civic Platform (PO) party in October’s general election, that his government planned to introduce income tax for farmers during this term of parliament. Stanislaw Kalemba’s rural-based Polish Peasant’s Party (PSL) – the junior coalition partner with three seats in the coalition – was less enthusiastic about the changes to the tax law and the new agriculture minister was known to be a critic of the plan.
The bill to introduce income tax for farmers has already been agreed with the Finance Ministry, Minister Kalemba says. He adds that the income tax will be in place of the current agricultural tax, as “there is no question of farmers paying two taxes”. Kalemba replaced previous Farm Minister Marek Sawicki this summer after he had to stand down due to allegations of cronyism at the Agriculture Ministry.
