Central bank recommends suspension of taxes, social security dues

The National Bank of Poland (NBP) on Monday recommended that the government should lift some tax and social insurance burdens from Polish companies amid the spreading coronavirus epidemic.

The recommended measures included the temporary suspension of taxes, social insurance premiums and the recently-introduced company-employee additional pension contributions, or the employee capital plans (PPK).

The move would help limit the bankruptcy risks of businesses and mitigate their losses, according to the NBP.

Companies that would find themselves in dire straits would not pay taxes anyway, the NBP said, but without these measures they would face the threat of going out of business.

The central bank also suggested that in extreme cases, companies could be allowed to temporarily cut wages, but not to go lower than the minimum wage level, however, such a wage reduction would have to be compensated at a later time.