Virtual office vs tax office - the most important information

Registering a company in a virtual office is becoming increasingly popular, but the process is not always free of challenges. Although a virtual office is a legal solution, tax offices can create difficulties, especially when it comes to assigning a TIN or recognizing a registration address. In this article we discuss the most important legal issues, registration problems and tips on how to avoid difficulties, especially in terms of office location.

Virtual office vs. tax office - trouble.

In the early days of virtual offices in Poland, tax offices threw stabs at entrepreneurs wishing to register their business in such a place. This was motivated in various ways, but most often the refusal to grant NIP was justified by "the failure to indicate in the identification application the number of a specific premises in the building and the failure to perform management functions at the indicated address of the Company's registered office."

Virtual office is legal

Nowhere in the regulations was or is there a word that the form must be registered at the place where the management activities are performed or that there must be a number on the door. Besides, in the age of the Internet, even the business owner himself may have trouble finding out where he performed a particular management action.

The VAT regulations list situations in which the registration of a payer can be denied:

• the information provided in the registration application is untrue,
  
• this entity does not exist,
  
• despite documented attempts have been made, it is not possible to contact this entity or its representative,
  
• entity or its representative fails to appear when summoned by the head of the ,
  
• From the information available, it appears that the taxpayer may conduct activities with the intention of using the activities of banks within within the meaning of Article 119zg(1) of the Tax Ordinance or cooperative savings and credit unions for purposes related to tax fraud within the meaning of Article 119zg(9) of the Tax Ordinance ,
  
• in view of this the court ruled, on the basis of separate provisions, to prohibit conducting business activity.
  

Let's leave aside obvious attempts at fraud, such as registering a non-existent entity as a VAT payer. As mentioned above, the reason for refusing to register a company in a virtual office was sometimes the presumption that the company did not operate there. This could correspond to the premise that the data provided in the application was false. But it cannot be false, because every reputable company operating a virtual office signs an agreement with clients registering their business there regarding the right to use the premises. This is certainly the case at Biznes Spot. Therefore, the company does operate there. And nowhere is it stated to what extent it is to operate at the address provided.

Such an understanding was supported by a judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court, which in the rather high-profile case II FSK 3549/13 ruled that the failure to indicate the specific premises where a company is registered is not a reason to refuse to recognize this fact. But in the justification of the judgment he added: "Moreover, in the current realities of economic turnover, taking into account modern technologies, management activities and business activities are and can be conducted anywhere, including with the use of so-called virtual offices or coworking (shared) offices."

Virtual office Warszawa

As everyone running a company in Poland probably knows, every office is a different law. Therefore, it is not irrelevant where we register the company. In a virtual office in a small town there may be problems if the trails have not yet been blazed. A virtual office in Warsaw is not some invention for local officials and here all the formalities will be the easiest to carry out.

Welcome to Biznes Spot, a virtual office Warszawa Downtown in three locations: Nowogrodzka 56a, Plac Powstańców Warszawy 2 and Wiślana 8.