TAX ON THE EXTRACTION OF CERTAIN MINERALS – A NEW QUALITY IN THE POLISH TAX LAW

Abstract

On April 18, 2012, the Law on Taxation of Certain Minerals came into force. By virtue of this law, a new public levy, assumed to constitute a form of a resource rent, was introduced into the Polish law. The tax covers the extraction of two metals, namely copper and silver, and belongs to the group of levies that are imposed based on the volume of the mining output (extraction). The revenue from the new levy is supposed to constitute in its entirety the income of the state budget. According to the drafters of the law, the tax should make it possible to capture the outstanding profits of the entities that extract the metals in question. However, according to experts in the tax law and experts in the management of those resources, the structure of the levy in question raises doubts. The aim of this paper is to present the technical elements of the Tax on the Extraction of Certain Minerals and the controversies related to the introduction of this levy. It discusses the subjective and the objective scope of the tax, the taxpayers’ duties, as well as the normative structure of the tax rates and scales.