Tomasz BEGER
tax advisor, Tax Partner at RSM Poland

From a board member's point of view, an entrepreneur's or that of a foreigner delegated to develop the company's branch in Poland, the subject question is of fundamental meaning. The answer, as is often the case with taxes, is unambiguous. It all depends on how apt you are to take on extra risks and how much spare time you may allow yourself to spend on solving tax riddles…

When can a business benefit from support?

Every person running a  business, whether part of an international corporation's managing board or a person in charge of developing a small or medium-sized national business, must face tenths, if not hundreds of decisions every day, both on operational and strategic levels. The larger the organisation, the sooner you have to act. And the less time you have for a think-first analysis and reasonable search for alternative solutions. That is why in such moments having the support of competent professionals experienced in a specific, narrow discipline is of crucial importance to the board member. Indeed, that is often the case. In technical areas, you've got the Production Manager. Sales-wise, you can count on your Chief Commercial Officer. When it comes to purchase and supply chains, you will be supported by the manager of your purchase & logistics department. In terms of finances, you've got the Chief Accountant and the CFO to guide you.

But what happens when a tax problem is on the horizon? First, the problem will most probably be forwarded to either the accounting or financial department. But amidst all the day-to-day budget struggles, introducing internal inspections, booking current transactions, generating interim reports and summaries, do the people employed in accountancy and finances really have enough time to search for a solution of the tax problem all by themselves?  It is rather rare to see an accountant, controller or CFO suffering from an excess of time, is it not?

In terms of taxes, an advisor is better than an accountant

As tax advisors we consider our task to be one of supporting you in tax-related decision-making. Sometimes this will involve finding a solution to a certain tax problem, but at other times we are here to draw our clients' attention and identify areas of tax risk, and offer suitable alternative approaches to minimise tax risks in the future. This is to allow you to make a possibly rational, well-informed business decision – simply one that is right.

Why is it more advisable to use the support of professional tax advisors instead of simply adding yet another task to be handled by the financial department? Because we know what we're doing... and, I dare say, we enjoy it, too! Although it might sound a little strange, we really are passionate about the intricacies of tax law, the various interpretation approaches, judicial glosses, contradictory rulings and the instability of tax authorities.

As you know, tax law is the most dynamic branch of Polish law, with new regulations often contradicting previous ones. More often than not solving even the simplest of tax issues requires studying dozens of legal norms. And that is exactly what we specialise in – we provide clarification and advise how to apply tax law provisions in practice.

Tax advisory is more than just interpreting tax regulations

To us, by saying "tax advisor" the emphasis is on supporting and advising. Tax issues are sometimes only one of the elements we point out to our clients. We advise our clients comprehensively; we provide professional tax services, but also support them in the whole process of managing a business.

The blog introduced by the hereby post is meant to be one of the elements of this support. We hope it will find many followers, both among company presidents and owners, as well as CFOs, Chief Accountants and planning personnel. The blog is addressed to all those who seek to pursue their business objectives in an effective and safe manner.