BTTP experts: Małgorzata Breda, tax advisor and director of the indirect tax department, and Dominik Szlęzak, senior tax consultant, participated in a meeting of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Support and Development Team regarding SENT (Electronic Transport Supervision System), which took place in the Sejm (lower house of parliament) on April 15. The meeting focused on the impact of regulations on running a business in the clothing and footwear industry within the SME sector.
The meeting was attended by representatives of micro and SME entrepreneurs, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Members of Parliament. Our experts pointed to the clear need to develop guidelines on how to interpret SENT exemptions during audits, as many of them are difficult to apply in practice, which undermines the principle of legal certainty and requires urgent intervention.
A representative of the Ministry of Finance announced that the tax administration has received internal guidelines to refrain from imposing sanctions in the event of initial, minor violations – despite the lack of a clear legal basis in the regulations governing SENT itself. In such situations, authorities are to be guided by the important public interest, particularly in the case of small and micro-enterprises.
All parties agreed on the need to create clear guidelines for the application of the current regulations – including how to prove circumstances excluding the SENT obligation during an inspection (e.g. B2C trade).
