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White list of VAT taxpayers – what is it and how to use it to verify contractors?
The white list of VAT taxpayers contains a catalogue of entities registered as VAT taxpayers, unregistered and deleted and restored to the VAT register.
This tool, which allows checking the taxpayer status, is available as a search engine on the website of the Ministry of Finance. To obtain precise data on the contractor, simply enter the bank account number, tax ID number (NIP), National Business Registry Number (REGON) or simply the name of the contractor.
As a rule, the white list allows you to check whether the indicated contractor with whom you want to start cooperation as part of your business activity is listed (as at a given day and up to five years ago) in the register of VAT payers.
In addition, the list includes data such as information on the deletion of a taxpayer from the VAT register, their reinstatement therein, or on the refusal of registration (along with the legal basis indicated by the tax authority).
Importantly, the current VAT taxpayer status is not everything – the white list also includes bank account numbers to which money should be transferred to the contractor. It is worth remembering that if the transaction amount exceeds PLN 15,000 and is transferred to an account outside the white list, this may result in negative consequences. In such a case, the tax office may impose tax sanctions and, for example, refuse to qualify the transferred amount as a tax deductible cost.
Verification of contractors on the white list of VAT taxpayers is an important tool for taxpayers to exercise due diligence in VAT. Using the white list can protect entrepreneurs from being accused of participating in tax fraud and from having to enter into a dispute with the tax authorities.
A taxpayer who, as part of their business activity, wants to transfer payment to company account numbers not included in the white list and avoid the consequences imposed in such a case by the tax authorities should, within the statutory deadline, submit a notification of payment of the amount due to an account not included in the List (ZAW-NR) to the head of the tax office competent for the issuer of the invoice.
Submitting a ZAW-NR notification to the tax office protects taxpayers both against negative consequences under income tax and against joint and several liability in VAT.
Another way in which a VAT payer can protect themselves against the negative consequences of a transfer made to a bank account number not on the white list is to pay the amount due using the split payment mechanism – however, this method protects the entrepreneur only and exclusively in the scope of joint and several liability in VAT.
The taxpayer should verify whether the list of bank accounts includes the contractor's account on the day of the transfer order, and not on the day the buyer's account is debited or the seller's account is credited.
If a taxpayer wants to transfer funds and make payments to foreign entities, they should determine whether the payment will be made to a foreign entrepreneur:
- registered in Poland as an active VAT payer and carrying out transactions subject to VAT in Poland;
or - using foreign tax identification numbers for a given transaction.
If a foreign contractor does not use a Polish Tax Identification Number (NIP) for the purposes of a given transaction, the provisions regarding checking the account number in the VAT payer list will not apply.
To add company bank account numbers to the white list, taxpayers must report them by updating the data on the NIP-2 or NIP-8 form. Importantly, entrepreneurs must report such an update within 7 days of the day on which the bank account number changed.
