Tax Offices will look into our bank accounts. New regulations come into force in July

From July, the commonly known as "Treasury" will gain new powers – to look into our bank accounts. What is most important, such a possibility will be theoretically updated "without any procedure". It should be noted that until July 2022 such a possibility existed only for suspects. However, a simple legislative procedure was performed – in the existing provision of Article 48 of the Act of 16 November 2016 on the National Fiscal Administration, the word , "suspect" was changed to , "natural person". This is yet another change brought by the so-called Polish Order.

So how will the Tax Office get our bank account numbers? The Tax Offices will be able to request access to data from a bank account held by a natural person. And it is precisely under the new regulations that banks will be obliged to provide the tax authorities with data on the number of bank accounts held by a given person, their current balance, and – which is not unlikely – on the turnover of the business activity of the checked person. It should be noted that until the amendment of the regulations, banks could provide this kind of information only in the situation where tax proceedings were first initiated against a person suspected of e.g. committing a tax crime.

The changes in regulations will introduce the possibility of "checking" bank accounts with regard to all natural persons and, what is important, also with regard to appointed proxies of bank accounts, not only their owners. Hypothetically, let us imagine a situation in which a given taxpayer (e.g. being a natural person running a one-person business) does not disclose his/her income earned by the company in order to avoid the necessity of paying the due income tax or runs an unregistered business at all. In the example given, the taxpayer will be properly "checked" by the relevant Tax Office for information on all bank accounts held by him.

Will only Tax Offices have such powers? Well, no. On the grounds of the new regulations, the catalog of entities that will be able to demand disclosure of the information on account balances will also be expanded. Currently, in addition to the head of the National Fiscal Administration, only the head of the customs and fiscal office can request the disclosure of such information. However, starting from July 1, 2022, also the head of the tax office will have this authority.

As a commentary to the new regulations, for the time being it should be noted that they arouse a lot of controversy. According to the latest announcements of the National Fiscal Administration, the government will re-examine the regulations and (as announced by the government) it is not excluded that they will be changed. To what extent and if it will happen at all? The Polish Ombudsman asked the government to clarify the issue of the disputed regulations because, in his opinion, "no justification for the change has been provided, and it significantly broadens the scope of interference in citizens' privacy". It is difficult not to agree with this. It should be borne in mind that data provided by banks is protected by tax secrecy, which is regulated in detail in the Tax Code.

As the old saying goes: "In this world only death and taxes are certain" (Benjamin Franklin). This saying becomes even more important in the light of the forthcoming changes to the Tax Code.