PKP Declares Bankruptcy

End of the Line?

Polish State Railways (PKP) are facing a tragic situation. PKP Regional Railway Services, which for many Polish people is their only connection with civilisation, will soon cease to exist. The Supervisory Board wants the Management Board to declare bankruptcy within a week. As a consequence, only small railway companies and Intercity will be left. The Supervisory Board wants the Management Board to declare the bankruptcy no later than on 6^th November 2009. According to the monthly Rynek Kolejowy (Railway Market), the aim of the bankruptcy is to facilitate reaching an agreement with the obligees and the future re-establishment of the company from scratch. However, there is only one problem, i.e. pursuant to provisions of the Bankruptcy and Recovery Act as of the 8th September 2000, every company that was established on the basis of this Law cannot declare bankruptcy. Due to the fact that PKP Regional Railway Services was set up pursuant to this Act, attorneys of the company have a tough row to hoe because they have to declare insolvency of a company which cannot legally go bankrupt. If PKP Regional Railway Services collapses, this will be a tragedy for numerous passengers because many trains will cease to shuttle to and from small towns cutting them off entirely from the outside world.
Dziennik

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Driving Licences to Cost the Earth

Happy Days to End?

If you want to have a driving licence, you should hurry up because next year the price of driving courses will skyrocket. The Ministry of Finance has decided that driving schools will be obliged to pay 22% VAT; therefore, the courses may cost as much as PLN 300 more than now. The Ministry of Finance has begun adapting Polish law to EU law, and, as always, it will end with a price increase. “The draft amendment provides that education services will still be exempt from Value Added Tax. However, according to the new nomenclature of the European Union, the activity of driving schools is not included in the catalogue of education services,” says Magdalena Kobos, the press spokesperson for the Minister of Finance. Owners of driving schools do not conceal the fact that the plans of the government will result in an increase in the prices of  courses. As a consequence, future drivers will have to pay from PLN 200 to 300 more. The draft has already been approved by the government and will now be analysed by the Polish Parliament. If everything goes according to plan, the new regulations will enter into force on the 1^st of January 2010.
Dziennik

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Favourable Changes in PIT Act

Better Forms

It is plausible that in Autumn a law will come into force which will relieve people who work full time in one place from the necessity to fill out and later send Personal Income Tax (PIT) forms to the tax office. “According to government estimates as many as 2 to 5 million tax payers will take advantage of this change,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk after a government meeting on Tuesday. “We precipitated works on changes in law which will make the life of millions of tax payers much easier,” said Tusk during the press conference. “This refers to people who receive their income from only one source, i.e. those who work in one place and currently have to fill out and send PIT forms,” explained the Prime Minister.

The PM highlighted that employees themselves, and not the administration, will decide whether they will fill out and send PIT forms or leave it to their employers. “If, however, employees want to fill out and send PIT forms on their own, then they have to inform their employers about this fact,” said Tusk and stressed that otherwise, employers are automatically obliged to send the PIT form of their employees together with any additional information that tax payers previously filled out. This will include information concerning possible tax allowance for internet, children, as well as information to which non-profit organisation the tax payers wish to donate 1% of their tax. “In order to simplify this procedure and free PIT tax payers from this inconvenient and unnecessary obligation, it is indispensable to introduce certain legal changes,” said the PM. This concerns an amendment to the PIT Act prepared by Minister of Finance Jan Rostowski and which was accepted by the government during Tuesday’s meeting. “We hope that this law will become effective this Autumn,” said Tusk.
Wirtualna Polska

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Government Says ‘Yes’ to Pot

Legalise It?

The Minister of Justice Andrzej Czuma is planning to soften drug laws. He proposes to legalise the possession of a small amount of drugs, for so-called personal use. He also suggests that those who sell and deal drugs should be punished more severely. “The regulation according to which the possession of even the smallest amount of  substances is punishable by law, passed nine years ago, has not changed a thing. We propose a legal framework which will exclude punishments for occasional users of, for example, marijuana. However, there will be a chance to diagnose and help addicts,” said Barbara Wilamowska from the Ministry of Justice in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza. Until now there have been cases of people indicted of “possession of drugs in their bodies”, if somebody had smoked marijuana. As a result, occasional users of marijuana and ecstasy have ended up behind bars. “Those smoking marijuana make up 60% of all inmates convicted of the possession of drugs,” says Kajetan Dubiel, a prison officer.
Dziennik

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Fighting Eviction

KDT No More

For many citizens of Warsaw, the end of the month will mark the end of an era. Warsaw’s Kupieckie Domy Towarowe (KDT or Trader’s Hall) will close at the end of July. Lying in the shadow of the Palace of Culture, KDT is a large hall with hundreds of stalls run by traders offering Warsaw’s citizens mainly cheap clothes and shoes. The hall is to make way for Warsaw’s new Museum of Modern Art much to the bitterness of the KDT traders. According to these soon-to-be-evicted merchants, over 2,000 people work in the hall bringing in PLN 6 million worth of tax every year. In order to ensure the eviction order is undertaken, Warsaw city authorities have brought in the bailiffs today. The merchants refused to move in demonstration of their forced eviction, which resulted in clashes with the police and even the use of tear gas.
Wirtualna Polska

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Energy Certificates for All

Improving Energy Standards

All flats sold on the ’secondary’ market (that is, not newly-built properties) will have to possess energy certificates. The government has prepared an amendment to the Polish Construction Law and the Real Estate Management Act which introduces the obligation to issue energy certificates for buildings that are for sale on the secondary market. The seller of a house or flat will be obliged to provide the purchaser with this document. Currently, only properties sold on the ‘primary’ market are required to have energy certificates.

When it come to flats on the secondary market, purchasers or tenants decide on their own whether they want to receive such certificates or not. “The amendment is in accordance with the EU directive which introduced energy certificates. The directive clearly stipulates that the certificates should be prepared in every case of selling or renting a flat or house regardless of whether the transaction is on the primary or secondary market,” says Marcin Piotrowski, chairman of the Confederation of the Building Industry and Real Estates (KBiN). Moreover, the amendment covers a wider number of people who have the right to issue energy certificates. At present, only people with a Master’s degree are entitled to prepare these documents, whilst those who have completed an Engineer’s degree cannot. The government wants energy certificates to be issued also by civil engineers who graduated from departments such as: architecture, construction, environmental engineering, power engineering or related fields.
Gazeta Prawna

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Going Away? Don’t Tell Your Boss

Shh... Don't Tell Your Boss

If your boss asks you to leave a phone number at which s/he will be able to reach you while you are away on holiday, by no means should you agree to it. Moreover, you should not yield to pressure even if your superior threatens you with revoking your holiday. The Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data (GIODO) is on your side. One employer has asked all of his/her employees to leave contact numbers in case they are needed to return to work. According to the GIODO this is illegal. The employer has no right to do this as it is against the law. Such practice is only acceptable in very particular circumstances and concerns employees performing a strategic function in a company.
Dziennik

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Changes in Inheritance

More Heirs

From the 28^th of June 2009, the group of intestate heirs who inherit from a person that did not make disposition of his or her estate in the event of death will include more relatives. As a result of the new amendments, both grandparents and stepchildren will have the right to inherit, whilst parents will receive a larger share of the inherited estate from a childless person at the expense of his or her siblings. A single mother will get half of the inheritance after the death of her only child and will inherit concurrently with the child’s spouse only when relation to the biological father of the dead child cannot determined. “Increase in the number of intestate heirs will limit the right of the municipality as well as of the Ministry of Treasury if the last place of residence was outside Poland,” says Maria Urbańska from Kosiński i Wspólnicy. The new regulations are stipulated in the Act of the 2^nd of April 2009 in the amendment to the Civil Code Act (Journal of Laws No. 79, item 662). However, the new regulations will apply only to estates after the new Act comes into force, i.e. after the 28^th of June 2009. To the group of intestate heirs have been added grandparents, both on the father’s and mother’s side, as well as their descendants, i.e. the aunts and uncles of the deceased. However, grandparents will inherit only if the deceased did not have any spouse or close relatives such as: children, grandchildren, parents, siblings or descendants of the siblings who can and would like to inherit a property from him or her. Their shares in the inheritance are equal regardless of whether they are married or not.
Gazeta Prawna

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New Prison Measures

Prison Changes

Prison wardens will have the right to incapacitate prisoners. These new measures will include knee joint blockade and devices for incapacitating prisoners with an electric shock. Moreover, the rules for prison worker disciplinary action will change radically. This has all been stipulated in the prison service bill, which was voted through by members of Parliament yesterday. The bill includes a list of measures which can be used not only on prisoners, but also by visitors who attempt to disturb the peace in prisons. A new device, namely a knee joint blockade, prevents an escorted person from escaping. According to the legislators, this device will considerably improve the working conditions of wardens as well as enable the secret and professional escorting of prisoners who, for instance, have obtained permission to take part in family events. Another measure, a device for incapacitating prisoners with an electric shock, successfully incapacitates someone behaving aggressively and who refuses to be inspected or checked. Furthermore, disciplinary courts will be done away with while disciplinary spokespersons will be appointed. What is more, superiors will decide about disciplinary liability, whereas a police officer will get the right to appeal against his decision.
Gazeta Prawna

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Driving Licence Revolution

Green for Go

According to the daily Metro, the government wants to introduce, as soon as next week, a two-year driving licence for new drivers and the obligation to put a green leaf sticker on their windscreens; whereas, experienced drivers will have to renew licences every 15 years. The restrictions will concern mostly drivers who have just passed their driving test because they will receive a driving licence only for a two-year trial period and will have to drive with a maple-leaf-shaped green sticker on both their front and rear windscreen. If they are caught committing three traffic offences, they will have to pass the test once again. However, this is not all because those who already have driving licences will have to replace them with new ones. This follows from the EU directive of 2006 which introduces uniform driving licences for all Member States of the European Union. Even though the driver will have to pay for the new driving licence, which currently costs PLN 70.50, he or she will have time until the year 2033 to change it. It is still unknown when drivers will be forced to replace their driving licences. Nevertheless, the new licence will not be without a expiry date. This document will be issued for 15 years so that, pursuant to the requirement of the EU directive, the picture in the licence is up-to-date. Moreover, lorries drivers will have to replace their documents every five years and at the same time they will be examined by a doctor and psychologist. If the Lower House of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) approves the government proposals, the new regulations will come into force at the end of 2009.
Wirtualna Polska

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