Work / Salary expectations in Poland [373]

it depends what you mean by Senior - but if its a position where you would report into the board or audit committee then I would have thought pln 20-25k a month gross. if lower than that then probably 10-15k.

News / Talks on re-polonising Pekao bank under way [58]

Well PZU share price responded by sinking to a record low. No problem for me - after years as a loyal shareholder I have got tired of the falling profits and dividends and had already dumped it. PZU has a great market position on a strong growth economy and should be performing much better - which they would do if they stuck to insurance. the appointment of govt cronies is nothing new - started even in the mid 90s - difference is that the people that Cimosiewicz or Tusk appointed had a vague clue about business.

Some of the comments above about the family silver being sold cheap are very wide of the mark - I spent much of the 90s tramping round freezing, unsafe factories and decrepid offices - much of the industrial base was totally worthless. there are plenty of examples of countries where privatization was too quick, but in those where ot was too slow like Serbia and Ukraine the effect on economic progress and social cohesion is obvious.

Real Estate / Can you take credit/mortgage in a Polish bank to buy land in Poland? [11]

it will be very challenging for two reasons - you will need to take a zloty mortgage but your earnings are in sterling and you are self employed. Secondly the land would have to be included in the zoning plan and have all media connected in order for the bank to accept it as collateral.

its not impossible but be prepared for a large deposit - say 40 percent - and to put in some shoe leather visiting different banks. you could start with someone like BGZ or WBK as they are a bit more switched on. Good luck - you will get many rejections so each time try and understand what the dealbreaker is for the bank.

News / Talks on re-polonising Pekao bank under way [58]

yes many details need to be worked out - like where to get the money from. And a small detail - what if Pekao's customers don't want to deposit their cash with the economically illiterate PiS govenment.

Life / Why are the lines in supermarkets the slowest and the longest in Europe? Usually only very few employees work [18]

One of the main reasons is that they don't keep the right change in the till and the Pole's also never get their payments ready while they stand in line

also seems to be a lot of holding up items and then shouting at someone to get the right price, so their scanners might be old.

I think Lidl is very good though - till line always moves quickly and they have the correct number open.

Life / Working life in Poland [18]

I worked in US and Germany and Poland so have some comparative experience

Poland sits somewhere between American attitudes and German ones - if you are lower down the company then 9-5 is OK. But if you come in on a high wage, needing people to translate for you and getting an apartment and travel, then leaving at 5 will certainly raise eyebrows with your coworkers. What I normally tell my new hires at mgmt level is that its not 9-5 but it can be 9 - 6.30.

On notice periods then as Nojas says, after the 3 months period you don't have much security. But you will never find anywhere with job security like Germany/France, so if that is your priority then suggest you roll with it and get used to the aircon (BTW, many of your Polish coworkers will also complain about it !). I remember when I was in Germany a guy punching a client at the Oktoberfest and that not being sufficient reason to fire him :)

Real Estate / Can I fence and keep anything in my property in Poland? [3]

The Poles love fences and put them all round their plots - open lawn plots are virtually unheard of here. In my street I cannot think of one house like that.

but there are restrictions about what kind of stuff you can do in your yard (I know you cannot just cut down trees for instance), as to what you can keep there - ask a lawyer if its anything controversial and you plan to spend a lot of money on it. If its just some small issue do it the Polish way - try and wait for someone to tell you to stop.

Love / Polish mother of my child - 'No money, no daughter' - ADVICE NEEDED [46]

Victor I think a problem you will have is that you wish to use the law when it suits you, but in other cases (like helping her defraud social security or selling old things without paying tax) you wish to stay outside the formal world.

It's clear that you were not thinking straight at the time, but that's understandable - after your son's death I can see why you wanted a relationship and something to cling to.

Maybe do something like that ?

- see if you can find proper work that would allow you to support her formally and make you seem more reliable to a court
- get her commitment on access if you were to send cash (in writing)
- send a few payments and if there is no access then involve a lawyer
- accept a DNA test if needed

good luck, but your chances of a 100% successful outcome are low. And don't think its easy for her either - bringing up a kid on your own is stressful and will involve a lot of hard decisions on her part.

Work / Polish private pension - is it obligatory to join? [13]

If you mean is it mandatory to contribute to ZUS then yes, if you are employed by a Sp z o.o.

There might be an exception if you are paid as a director - I am not up to speed on those rules, but I think they closed that loophole several years ago. In any case it made no sense to the individual - your Sp z o.o saved money but you had no contributing service which means that if you go back to another EU country then it might have been an interruption to your pensionable service.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

I would have thought any country looking at the carnage in Britain in the last few days would wonder if it really was such a grear idea to have a referendum.

Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Luke sorry that you are having a bad time but some of the answers need to come from you.

You should have had 2 important discussions with your wife - the one about how important kids are and the one about moving to Poland. Probably its not too late - but those are things two of you must sort out. Put the little one to bed, take her to dinner and discuss that.

One thing I do know is that the most stressful time in my own marriage was when we were trying to build a house and bring up toddlers at the same time - you have zero free time, there is financial stress, diaper stress, lack of sleep and its no wonder that she will turn to her parents at this time. Also I imagine with you not speaking Polish you had many cases where she would discuss something with the builders and then come and ask you for 10k zloty to fix it - I know that is frustrating but the alpha and omega comes down to your willingness to learn Polish. Without doing that then every element of your life here will be compromised. Anyway with your house built you should see things start to get easier.

In terms of having no friends then as your child grows you will have a loving friend who does something other than eat and poop. Enjoy those times - take your kid on trips, play sports, read to them, watch minions :)

Could you get some kind of work where you did e.g. 10 days in UK and then had free time - I know a few people who do that an Ryanair it Monday-Thursday. That would be much nicer than being a Skype dad.

Or could you have a regular trip to Krakow or Katowice every Friday night where you would be off the leash and could hang out with some expats.

But I think another problem that you have is a rather closed mind - people suggest church but you have no belief; people suggest a pub but you don't drink; people suggest a hobby but you have none. It might be that people in Chrzanow are already suggesting these things and then as you rebut them are just thinking "suit yourself". I don't mean to be sanctimonious but you might need to adapt your habits to find friends.

Good luck - hang in there because Summer in Poland is great :)

Law / Can a UK company earn in PLN? Foreign currency and mortgage in Poland. [22]

A more charitable explanation is that the tax advisor wrote this in Polish and it was very badly translated. Alternatively the OP did not provide her the full facts - especially that he intends to live on British funds while he is in Poland. But yes there are many things in there that are just plain wrong, most of which covered above; but two extra points

- 40 zloty to get a binding ruling is far from straightforward; you have to be very precise in the wording used in your application and unless you then follow the route exactly; your binding ruling will not protect you. Drafting a ruling like this could easily cost a few thousand zloty at a good accountant.

- The ruling comes from the local tax office, not from the Ministry of Finance. And nobody is going to indemnify you for bad advice.

Overall you seem to be performing many contortions to save a small amount of tax (which boils down to the false hope you can get the UK's higher tax free allowance). But these will hurt you badly if you really do settle here - its not just when you are sick or need a mortgage, but also in future you will need to have real residence addresses to register your kids at kindergarten, get a phone line or make a planning application.

Life / A rumour about the need to give passport copy when you buy a prepaid sim number in Poland? [23]

as always the govt has decided to pass a law first and worry about the real world repurcussions later. The idea was that you could do this registration in shops but the big retailers say they have no time to build the required computer system, get the required permits for handling data and don't want their lines at the till to get longer and slower. Meanwhile the small stores and kiosks who PiS claims to champion simply will not be able to afford the scanners and software needed.

That means that the only place to do this will be in the shops owned by the 4 operators - they have about 1000 stores between them - there are 20 million SIM cards to register so that means 20k people per store over a 6 month period, i.e. 200 people per day.

I think the govt will back down from the idea of turning off people's SIMs in February - imagine how many people it would annoy or inconvenience plujs there will be plenty of media friendly stories about people not able to make a call to their dying Grandma becasue her SIM was cut.

Law / Can a UK company earn in PLN? Foreign currency and mortgage in Poland. [22]

I doubt banks have considered the fact that you are putting your earnings in a UK limited company and I doubt they would be happy with that - check that out with the bank, but they would have to believe the property was strong collateral

Leaving that aside then yes you can show them that the inflows to your UK company are in PLN.

However a bigger problem for you is how to get your money out of the UK company tax free - if you take dividends you will pay UK CIT and then Polish dividend tax on top of that. if you pay yourself a salary you will pay Polish tax on that. if you loan money from the company to yourself then at the time you write it off you will pay Polish tax.

And also bear in mind that having a UK company might cause some VAT complications for your customers here. i dont know what line of business you are in but check that too.

News / Poland's Sejm passes anti-terrorist act; opposition negate [86]

The problem with the Morawiecki plan is that the profits of the big Polish companies have been scythed in half since he has been in power. polish capital is likely to flee just as foreign capital has.

News / Poland's Sejm passes anti-terrorist act; opposition negate [86]

Really - any evidence of that whatsoever ? Of course it is not feasible at all. There are plenty of foreign companies that invest here but by doing so they create better paid jobs, train local staff and thus raise the quality of the human capital in Poland, generally treat their employees better than Polish employers do, thus raising employees self awareness and expectations.

Now PiS is in charge of the economy I guess we can wait for things to get better ?

Law / Unable to repay bank loan in Poland. What are the consequences according to the law? [18]

Of course it's a free country and if you can get away with it then good luck to you. However please think about the many honest foreign borrowers here who want to stay in the country but find it difficult to get credit precisely because banks are not used to foreigners and like to know their risk. By your actions you are making their lives more difficult.

News / Moody's credit rating of Poland unchanged, but outlook slumps [64]

Agree about ratings agencies being difficult but there is a simple method to avoid them - don't borrow money.

But the Polish government now has to borrow much money to fulfil the promises they made to the naïve electorate and so obviously people who will lend want to know if Kaczynski, Szydlo and Szalamacha are trustworthy and will pay their money back. Seems they are making their own mind up on that.

Law / A Polish bank that doesn't rip u off..... [9]

No, it is owned by PZU, a state owned insurer. Add in Pko and BOS and actually quite a lot of the banking sector is still in Polish hands

News / Tesco out of Poland? Żabka and Biedronka opportunity. [73]

Zabka is not Portuguese. You are mixing it up with Biedronka.

News / Tesco out of Poland? Żabka and Biedronka opportunity. [73]

Well it obviously because Poles has far less disposable income and must first put a roof over their head and then have their 2000 calories a day plus some basic clothes for them and kids. After that they can think about the sun dried tomatoes.

There are in most big towns plenty of delis and a few upmarket supermarkets like Alma or Piotr I Pawel to cater for people who want more expensive items.

Law / Polish Income Tax Payable on Inheritance for UK Citizen [26]

But it was not her property and she did not sell it. So there is no reason to apply this tax to her. Yes she benefitted from it indirectly but then at a guess so did Suzy's local hairstylist and chinese takeout.

Its obvioudly nonsense to talk about prison - they would have to find, extradite and convict someone - all for the sake of a few hundred bucks. The tax authorities are interested in collecting cash, not in starting legal processes. They would have to show her a reason why she needs to pay the tax - they do not just make random demands.

As i said before the best course of action if she has doubts is to show she already paid inheritance tax and ask on what basis more is due. Its possible that her relatives have just realised that they have an unpaid tax liability, and they would like her to contribute to that. That makes it rather a family matter than a tax office matter. If she shows good faith by asking the tax office why she needs to pay extra tax then that would mean that they would view her more favourably anyway.

Yes Suzy can ask for tax advice, but my guess is that will start at about 200 zloty per hour - for a tiny issue.

Law / Polish Income Tax Payable on Inheritance for UK Citizen [26]

My view is this - you did not sell the property yourself, but received a cash gift. On that gift inheritance tax was already paid as you state. Which is correct. There is a tax free alliwance that varies but could be about 9000 zlots in your circumstance.

Capital gains does not apply since you had no asset in the first place. This is clearly gift / inheritance issue.

Income tax does not apply - you are not due to pay tax on worldwide earnings since you are not there 183 days. As Harry says it is not so simple because they can also look at where your kids, property is but I assume thats in Britain so again it does not apply. This means you are due only to pay tax on Polish events which you say you have done.

So I dont know why you are being told more tax is due - probably your relatives realize they are due for some more tax than they thought.

Also an opinion from Warsaw carries no more weight than one from your local tax office.

It is highly unlikely that a tax office would chase you or bother about this - you presumably have evidence of paying the inheritance tax and they do not have the resources to deal with foreigners outside Poland - they are too busy harrassing small businesses here.

But if you want more clarity then ask the tax office why incime tax would be due if you already laid inheirance tax. You could involve an accountant but with this issue being only worth a few thiusand zloty then anyone that speaks english would cost more than that anyway.

Law / Polish Income Tax Payable on Inheritance for UK Citizen [26]

Certainly if you are not resident you have no obligation to file your PIT 11 form which governs your personal income tax (and actually the deadline is today :) ).

Probably your relatives don't know that or have not thought about it.

As I said you might have to separately pay inheritance tax but its such a small amount that practically the local tax authroties will not hassle you about this.

Law / Polish Income Tax Payable on Inheritance for UK Citizen [26]

You would have no liability for Polish income tax if you are not resident in Poland for 183 days or more. The Polish tax authorities have no jurisdiction to fine you if you are not tax resident in Poland.

Whether you have extra inheritance tax to pay in Poland is a more complex issue but I doubt they would bother to chase you for 1000 quid in an unclear situation.

Law / Your experience as a foreigner running a small business in Poland [43]

totally disagree - I am usually prepared and have a lot of experience here but still confront regulations and paperwork that has no sense and generates no value on a daily basis. Jurisdiction is often unclear, contradictions very common and most legislation is poorly worded and implemented without consideration of the end user.

Real Estate / Buying property at the Bailiff / Enforcement Agent Auction (Komornik Sądowy) in Poland [20]

I can answer only one of your questions - I did unsuccessfully bid on a place and my deposit was returned without hassle - I think I waited 7 days for it.

Life / Number of church attendees in Poland [54]

Maybe praying to a deity is nonsense but what is normal and in my view very good for society is having a coherent set of "ground rules" and a time of the week to get together with the people in your community - old and young, rich and poor - and spend an hour or so in the same place.

In my suburban street I see 40-50% of the people in Church most Sundays and in the village where I have my farm its probably more like 80% - I think those figures are more or less stable.

Food / Vegetarian/Vegan restaurants in Warsaw [18]

If you pick up a copy of this months Insider there are 3 or 4 pages in an article about vegan food in Warsaw.

Feedback / Sad news today of the passing of a member of our site (Avalon) [16]

Rip Avalon - my sparring partner for many years about property deals. Sorry for your loss