Poland Taxes

It is tax time in Poland, and the country is abuzz with just one subject: To cheat or not to cheat. The hubbub goes beyond the normal grousing leading to every April 30, when personal income taxes come due here. An oversight in the new Polish tax code has made it is easier than ever to cheat--and, more importantly, to get away with it.

A ghost of the Communist past is haunting Anna Bankowska, head of Poland's behemoth social security system. With her overburdened state-run agency nearly $2 billion in the hole, Bankowska says it is time to get tough with employers who are chronic social security tax cheats. But Bankowska is learning that her weapon of choice--the passport--has become so revered in post-Communist Poland that it will be difficult to prevent tax evaders from traveling abroad, as her disputed crackdown threatens.

A ghost of the Communist past is haunting Anna Bankowska, head of Poland's behemoth social security system. With her overburdened state-run agency nearly $2 billion in the hole, Bankowska says it is time to get tough with employers who are chronic social security tax cheats. But Bankowska is learning that her weapon of choice--the passport--has become so revered in post-Communist Poland that it will be difficult to prevent tax evaders from traveling abroad, as her disputed crackdown threatens.

It is tax time in Poland, and the country is abuzz with just one subject: To cheat or not to cheat. The hubbub goes beyond the normal grousing leading to every April 30, when personal income taxes come due here. An oversight in the new Polish tax code has made it is easier than ever to cheat--and, more importantly, to get away with it.