Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "New Warsaw Express"

The European Union is set to sue Poland as soon as it joins - if the country votes to exempt Internet services from Value Added Taxes (VAT).
Leading Polish policy-makers are pushing to abolish VAT for Internet services, which currently pay a 7-percent tax. Internet services across the EU all pay a 22-percent VAT. Parliament has already shown strong signs that it accepts the idea and even senior ministers expressed hopes this week that an exemption could be worked out.
"Certainly VAT on the Internet is one of the things we would like to change, to encourage its development," Economy Minister Jerzy Hausner told reporters on Monday.
Polish lawmakers have said that boosting the tax would undermine e-commerce development in the country.
Last May, EU governments agreed to exempt online transactions with non-EU suppliers from VAT charges. Should Poland's parliament decide to ignore EU warnings and approve an exemption, the Union could sue the Polish government at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
"We do, of course, hope that between now and May 1, the Polish government will implement the (EU's) VAT rules," said European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd. "If it should turn out unfortunately that the Polish government were not to change its mind, we would have no choice but to initiate infringement proceedings.
"It is in the interest of all member states to apply binding community law, because otherwise we would descend into chaos, into a jungle of retaliatory measures," he added.
By 2006, Poland said it expects the number of broadband Internet users to more than triple to about 1.6 million users from a current 460,000.

A. M. WOLFE

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