Tax & Legal Highlights for Real Estate – May 2021
Subscribe to our newsletter (only in Polish)
1. Amendment of the Act on Suspension of Sale of State Treasury Agricultural Property Stock
On 23 April 2021, the Act of 17 March 2021 amending the Act on Suspension of Sale of State Treasury Agricultural Property Stock and amending other acts was signed by the President of the Republic of Poland.
We have already written about works on the draft concerning the abovementioned Act in previous issues of Tax & Legal Highlights for Real Estate.
As a result of the amendment, the period of suspension of sale of state-owned agricultural property has been extended by another 5 years, i.e. until 30 April 2026. Apart from the said change, the procedural regulations regarding applications for a permit for the sale of property by the National Agricultural Support Centre, issued by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, have been clarified. Pursuant to the new regulations, under the application the seller will be obligated to justify socio-economic reasons for such disposal.
The most important issue from the investment point of view is the fact that provisions allowing for the sale of real estates located in areas of local spatial development plans, providing for development with technology parks, industrial parks, business and logistics centres, warehouses, transport investments, housing, sports and recreation facilities, as well as real estate located in special economic zones, have been retained.
At the same time, it should be noted that the signed version of the Act does not include provisions extending the exemption from the ban on the sale of real estate with an area of 5 hectares, added in the project of the Act, as a result of which real estate with an area of 2 hectares still remains excluded.
2. New privileges of social organization in the course of the investment procedure
On 20 April 2021 the President of the Republic of Poland signed the act of 30 March 2021 (“Act”) amending the act dated 3 November 2008 on publishing information about the environment and its conservation, public participation in the environmental and environmental impact assessment (“Environmental Act”).
The Act provides for special rights as regards the possibility of participation of a social organization in administrative proceedings conducted for investments for which a decision on environmental conditions (“Environmental Decision”) was issued. The Environmental Decision constitutes the first administrative decision that should be obtained by an investor in the investment process.
Pursuant to the Act, a social organization will be entitled to file an appeal against any of the administrative decision listed in article 72 section 1 of the Environmental Act (including, among others, the building permit or the decision on land development and management conditions), if a project was covered by the Environmental Decision with a reservation that when filling the appeal, the social organization will not be authorized to raise every identified legal failure, but only those strictly related to potential lack of compliance of the decision with the Environmental Decision.
Furthermore, the social organization will be able to file an appeal provided that it was a party to the proceedings on the environmental conditions and has carried out the statutory activity in the field of environmental protection for at least 12 months prior to the day when the proceedings on the issuance of one of the decisions specified in article 72 section 2 of the Environmental Act was initiated.
Therefore, there is a risk that as a result of new rights granted to social organizations facilitating the possibility of lodging an appeal, the time needed to complete the investment process may extend.
See tax comment
See the previous editions: February 2019 | March 2019 | April 2019 | May 2019 | June 2019 | July 2019 | August 2019 | September 2019 | November 2019 | December 2019 | January 2020 | February 2020 | March 2020 | April 2020 | May 2020 | June 2020 | July 2020 | August 2020| September 2020| October 2020 | November 2020 | December 2020 | January 2021 | February 2021 | March 2021 | April 2021
