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Effective Tax Burden on Businesses With ‘Small Taxpayer’ Status in the Corporate Income Tax in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Purpose – the purpose of the paper is to provide empirical evidence on the effective average tax burden (EATR) of small companies which have the status of ‘small taxpayer’ and as such are subject to some tax advantages in Poland. Design/methodology/approach – in the analysis, an EATR measure is used. It is based on corporate cash flows and it can be seen as a long term tax ratio. Empirical data on 6.775 corporations in Poland from the Amadeus database is used. It covers the period 2012–2015. The analysed companies are divided into two groups depending on their liquidity, which is an important financial feature in the context of tax duties. Some descriptive statistics as well as a nonparametric test are implemented. Findings – the difference between EATR of companies with positive and negative sum of periodical cash flows is statistically significant. The median EATR in the group of taxpayers with negative cash flows equals the nominal tax rate of 19%. The EATR is higher in the group of taxpayers with positive liquidity and it amounts to 31%. In the group of firms with negative cash flows, the EATR is characterized by stronger variation. The EATR is lower in subsequent quartiles, compared to firms with positive liquidity. This may indicate lower tax burden on small taxpayers with negative cash flows. Originality/value – the investigation provides empirical evidence on the EATR of companies with ‘small taxpayer’ status in Poland. It contributes to the discussion about corporate tax burden, which is especially important bearing in mind raising interest on tax incentives for SMEs within the European Union.

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