Pursuant to the Act Amending the Excise Duty Act and Certain Other Acts adopted on Tuesday, April 20, from May 1, 2021, the provision of Article 48 §2 of the Fiscal Penal Code will change. A fine may be imposed up to five times the minimum wage. In practice, this means that the maximum fine imposed for an offense will increase from PLN 5,600 to PLN 14,000, as the regulation of the Council of Ministers regarding the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate in 2021 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1596) increased the minimum wage to PLN 2,800.
How does the government justify the amendment? The bill's author recognizes the need to extend these proceedings to a broader range of prohibited acts classified as fiscal offenses. " This is a realization of the practice that recognizes the need to extend these proceedings to a broader range of prohibited acts classified as fiscal offenses. This change should also serve to relieve courts in fiscal offense cases, considering that the inability of the mandated body to apply a sanction appropriate to the offense results in the need to file an indictment or a motion to voluntarily accept liability. "
Changes also appear in the Penal Code - " During the period of an epidemic threat or an epidemic state announced due to COVID-19 and within six months after the date of their revocation, the statute of limitations for punishability of an act and the statute of limitations for the execution of a penalty in cases of crimes and fiscal crimes do not run. " This is the wording of Article 15zzr 1 of the amendment to the Act of March 2, 2020 on special solutions related to the prevention, counteracting and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them (Journal of Laws, item 1842, as amended3), adopted by the Sejm on Tuesday, April 20.
The amendment also provides that the statute of limitations provisions as amended by this Act will apply to acts committed before the Act's effective date and penalties imposed before the Act's effective date, unless the statute of limitations has already expired. It should therefore be noted that if a given act expired before the Act's effective date, it will not be subject to prosecution.
