Centralization in the field of value added tax (VAT) has set the municipalities and other local government units serious challenge. Implementation of centralized settlement of VAT requires among other things, the development of appropriate procedures and training of financial and accounting services.

The biggest challenge, however, is still before us, ie. the first joint settlement of local government and its organizational units.

It will be a real test for, in particular, whether the procedures are working properly and financial services units properly identify and document the taxed activities. This test will de facto be repeated every month for each subsequent settlement of VAT and the preparation of the consolidated VAT-7 form.

Ensuring the accuracy of the common VAT settlement requires, in particular keeping track of changes in regulations. The legislator is extremely active in this area and from 1 January 2017 has served us another amendment to the VAT Act. However, in terms of already existing long-VAT regulations, there are many doubts too, as evidenced by the differences in interpretation in a number of key issues for local governments (including those relating to the right to VAT deduction) and subsequent questions addressed by the Supreme Administrative Court to the Court of Justice of the EU. All this is aggravated by the question of the eligibility of VAT in projects from EU funds. The declaration of VAT eligibility now requires an extended analysis for the use of the infrastructure created in the project.

Taking these challenges into cosideration we have prepared a package of services to support the settlement of VAT in local government units, including in particular the current tax advice, tax reviews, as well as training in tax.

In particular, we would like to encourage you to use our range of taxation training organized within the Grupa Gumułka Academy. These changes in the regulations in force from 1 January 2017 as well as doubts as to interpretation, including the judgments of the Supreme Administrative Court, impose continuous improvement of human resources. That's because no one else, as treasurer and accountants working in the office and organizational units every day have to contend with a difficult matter of VAT.

To meet these needs, we invite you to training "Settlement of VAT in local government units in 2017" by tax advisers with practical experience in working with local governments, including in particular centralization of VAT.