Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2025

1. Introduction

The Polish Supreme Administrative Court’s judgment in case No. III FSK 268/23 of 11 October 2024 addresses the interpretation of the Poland-Romania DTC (1994) in relation to Poland’s Tax on Certain Financial Institutions (commonly known as the “bank tax”) that was introduced on 1 February 2016.

The bank tax is levied on the assets of financial institutions (such as banks) in Poland. It is calculated on the total value of a bank’s assets exceeding PLN 4 billion based on the balance sheet as determined by entries in the general ledger. However, several categories are deducted from this base including: (i) the institution’s own funds (equity), (ii) treasury securities and other government-guaranteed instruments, (iii) repo transactions backed by treasury securities, (iv) assets acquired from the National Bank of Poland as collateral for refinancing loans, (v) contributions to employee capital plans (for insurers), and (vi) loans and bonds linked to the bank guarantee fund or asset management entities. The tax rate is 0.0366% per year on the portion of the assets above the threshold. The tax applies to Polish-resident financial institutions regardless of whether the asset...