This industry supports the digital tax, but is afraid of one thing

• According to ZPWC, technology giants use their dominant position to minimize fiscal burdens in countries where they generate significant value.
• Big Tech profits are growing year by year, so the tax threshold should be higher than the €750 million proposed in 2018.
• The tax should include mechanisms that prevent its burden from being shifted to local trading partners.

According to the ZPWC, in an era of increasing economic digitization and the increasing globalization of services, the competitive gap between domestic companies and foreign digital platforms is widening. The digital tax is intended to be a tool to counteract this inequality.

The dominant position of technology giants

As ZPWC points out, the contemporary digital economy is characterized by a high degree of market concentration, with global digital platforms such as Google, Meta (Facebook), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft occupying a dominant position. These companies leverage their strength, scale, extensive corporate structures, access to vast financial resources, and low-tax jurisdictions to minimize fiscal burdens in countries where they generate significant value. This creates a profound competitive asymmetry vis-à-vis domestic enterprises.

A tax levied on revenue from selected digital services provided to Polish users could address this asymmetry by taxing where market value is actually generated, meaning where users and consumers are located . A digital tax introduced unilaterally by individual countries, including Poland, could provide a fair mechanism for tax redistribution.

It should be clearly emphasized that the purpose of the digital tax should not be to place an additional burden on the entire digital sector as such, let alone on Polish technology companies that are already investing, reporting revenues and paying taxes in Poland.

The aim of the digital tax is to protect domestic digital companies

The fundamental premise of the proposed solution, according to the ZPWC statement, must be the protection of domestic entrepreneurs in the digital sector—i.e., innovative companies that actually operate in Poland, employ specialists, create numerous jobs, invest in technological development and infrastructure in Poland, and constitute a significant pillar of the national economy. Imposing an additional levy on them would further exacerbate competitive inequalities vis-à-vis international corporations. Unlike global giants, local, innovative enterprises generate real added value for the Polish economy , additionally reinvesting their generated funds locally.

Tax for companies with turnover above 750 million euros.

The study's authors propose that the tax be imposed on companies with global turnover exceeding €750 million annually . They also point out that this figure was established several years ago. In 2018, it was included in the European Commission's digital tax proposal.

In 2018, Alphabet achieved $136 billion in revenue and $350 billion in 2024, which means more than 2.5-fold growth in six years.

Meta saw an even larger increase in revenue during this period, from $55 billion to $164 billion—almost three times more.

The digital tax threshold should take these increases into account and be raised .

Furthermore, the ZPWC believes that additional criteria should be introduced, such as those adopted in the definitions of VLOP, VLOSE, and Gatekeepers in the DSA and DMA regulations. Thus, in addition to the turnover criterion, a criterion of 45 million monthly users in the European Union could be introduced. The Gatekeepers definition refers to €7.5 billion in turnover in the European Economic Area (EEA). The combined application of several criteria—global turnover, turnover within the EEA, and the number of users—will increase the likelihood that the digital tax will cover entities as intended and fulfill its intended purpose.

One of the most important challenges related to the introduction of the digital tax for ZPWC is to protect against the risk of it being passed on to domestic service recipients – both entrepreneurs and consumers.

The Association emphasizes that global digital platforms (including Google) use gross-up provisions in their regulations, according to which the service recipient is responsible for any taxes that may be charged to Google (e.g. withholding tax, which, in accordance with the Polish Corporate Income Tax Act, should be deducted by the Polish payer from the amount paid to the foreign contractor, including for advertising services).

These entities, taking advantage of their dominant market position, unilaterally impose contractual terms on their contractors , including Polish entrepreneurs, without the possibility of negotiation or rejection. Failure to accept the terms and conditions, including gross-up provisions, results in a lack of access to a given digital service, making the commercial relationship one-sided and asymmetric. This forces Polish service users to accept the terms imposed by the global provider and shifts the tax burden onto the service recipient.

Additionally, increasing rates for digital services provided by global digital platforms, combined with an attempt to shift the tax burden to advertisers, may lead to a reduction in advertising budgets directed to local media, which will consequently lead to a deterioration of their financial condition.

The tax burden cannot be passed on to the trading partner

In this context, ZPWC points out that the digital tax will lead to fair taxation of revenues obtained in Poland by foreign digital platforms only if the burden of this tax is actually borne by these entities and it is not transferred – through gross-up mechanisms – to Polish taxpayers using their services.

For this reason, the implementation of a digital tax, which aims to fairly allocate revenues based on the location of users of digital services, should go hand in hand with appropriate regulations preventing the transfer of the new tax burden to Polish users and taxpayers.

Consideration should be given to introducing a statutory ban on the possibility of a taxpayer shifting the digital tax to a business partner , and in the event of such a provision in a commercial contract, deeming it invalid under the provisions of the Digital Tax Act.

Social media platforms responsible for disinformation

According to the ZPWC, digital platforms, which are ultimately subject to the digital tax, are the main channel for the spread of disinformation, which polarizes Polish society. According to the report "Disinformation Through the Eyes of Poles," prepared by the "Together Against Disinformation" coalition, in 2024, as many as 84% of Poles encountered fake news, and 9 out of 10 respondents confirmed the accuracy of at least one false piece of information.

The algorithms used by platforms favor content that attracts users' attention, evokes emotions, and is tailored to their activity, creating a so-called information bubble effect. In this context, it is justified to create a fund from a portion of digital tax revenues specified by the legislator to support the creation of a quality media ecosystem.

Given the guiding principles of media freedom and freedom of speech in Poland, and to ensure the transparency of allocated funds, this fund should be managed by an independent organization. Recent years have demonstrated the scale of disinformation on key issues affecting Poland – the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, and migration – and manipulation of politicians' statements and the online spreading of false political information have become commonplace. In this context, supporting quality and reliable media becomes fundamental to defending democracy and social unity.