The amendment does not abolish MDR reporting altogether. However, the Polish legislator is moving away from solutions that went beyond the EU standard resulting from the DAC6 Directive. In practice, this means, above all, abolishing the obligation to report domestic tax schemes and focusing the reporting regime on cross-border arrangements.

For many businesses, this will be a genuine simplification. Until now, Polish MDR rules have also covered arrangements involving only Polish taxpayers and the Polish tax jurisdiction. As a result, MDR analyses were required not only for complex international structures, but also for many business activities carried out entirely in Poland. Following the changes, this scope will be significantly reduced.

Key changes to Polish MDR rules

The amendment introduces several groups of changes which, taken together, reshape the existing reporting model. The most important changes include:

• abolition of the obligation to report domestic tax schemes;
• limitation of reporting obligations, in principle, to cross-border tax schemes;
• amendments to the definitions of key terms, including tax scheme, arrangement, promoter, user, hallmarks and the main benefit test;
• removal of the so-called other specific hallmarks;
• exclusion of arrangements concerning VAT and excise duty from the scope of MDR;
• removal of the separate category of supporter and a revised approach to supporting activities;
• clarification of the rules for cooperation between entities obliged to report;
• clarification of the rules for communicating the Tax Scheme Number, known in Poland as NSP, or information that such number has not been assigned;
• changes to reporting rules for entities bound by professional secrecy under Polish law;
• abolition of the obligation to submit MDR-2 notifications;
• changes to the rules for submitting MDR-3 reports, including the possibility for such reports to be signed by an authorised representative;
• abolition of the obligation to maintain an internal MDR procedure;
• exclusion of the possibility to obtain an individual tax ruling on MDR provisions.

The catalogue of changes is broad, but their common objective is to reduce excessive formalism and bring Polish regulations closer to the EU standard. At the same time, this does not remove the responsibility for properly assessing cross-border arrangements.

Abolition of domestic MDR reporting as the main element of the reform

The most significant change is the removal of the obligation to report domestic tax schemes. From the very beginning, this solution raised numerous practical concerns, as the Polish rules in this respect were broader than the requirements arising under EU law.

Once the amendment enters into force, businesses operating solely in Poland will no longer need to analyse domestic arrangements for MDR purposes to the same extent as before. This should reduce the number of analyses carried out solely as a precautionary measure and ease the documentation burden on tax, finance and legal departments.

However, MDR obligations will remain relevant for cross-border arrangements. Particular attention will still need to be paid to, among others, intra-group transactions, foreign financing, reorganisations involving several countries, payments to foreign entities and holding structures with an international element.

Narrower scope of reporting triggers

The amendment also changes the way tax schemes are identified under Polish MDR rules. The basic definitions and the catalogue of hallmarks are being revised. Particularly important is the removal of the so-called other specific hallmarks, which did not result directly from the DAC6 Directive.

In practice, this should reduce situations where an MDR analysis was required for arrangements that had primarily commercial justification. Reporting is intended to focus more closely on cases corresponding to the EU model for the exchange of information on potentially aggressive cross-border tax arrangements.

In addition, VAT and excise duty will be excluded from the scope of MDR. This is another element narrowing Polish rules to the area that should remain subject to reporting obligations under the EU standard.

Changes concerning the parties involved in reporting

The new rules also reorganise the roles of entities involved in an arrangement. Until now, Polish MDR provisions distinguished between a promoter, a user and a supporter. In practice, this structure did not always make it easier to determine which entity was responsible for fulfilling the reporting obligation.

The amendment removes the separate category of supporter. Activities performed by such an entity will instead be assessed by reference to their significance for designing, making available, implementing or managing the implementation of an arrangement. If the involvement of a given entity is material, it may be classified as a promoter.

The rules governing cooperation between the promoter and the user will also change. Greater importance will be attached to documenting who reported the tax scheme, to whom the Tax Scheme Number was provided, and whether the other parties involved in the arrangement were properly informed that the reporting obligation had been fulfilled.

Professional secrecy and advisers’ obligations

The amendment also introduces important changes for entities bound by professional secrecy under Polish law, in particular tax advisers, attorneys-at-law, advocates and patent attorneys.

If reporting information on a tax scheme would breach legally protected professional secrecy, such an entity will not be required to make the report. Instead, such an entity will be required to notify the relevant promoter or, where no other promoter is involved, the user, that information on the tax scheme must be submitted to the Head of the Polish National Revenue Administration.

This is an important clarification of the relationship between MDR reporting obligations and the protection of professional secrecy. Until now, this area has been one of the more problematic aspects of applying the Polish MDR rules in practice.

Fewer forms and less formal procedure

The amendment also provides for procedural simplifications. MDR-2, i.e. the tax scheme notification, will be abolished. The rules for submitting MDR-3 reports will also change. Information on the application of a tax scheme is to be submitted once a year, separately for each reported tax scheme. In addition, MDR-3 will be able to be signed by an authorised representative, which should make reporting easier in larger organisations.

The obligation to maintain a formal internal MDR procedure will also be abolished. This does not mean, however, that businesses should completely abandon internal mechanisms for identifying reportable tax schemes. The obligation to properly assess cross-border arrangements will remain in force, as will the risk associated with incorrect classification or late reporting.

In practice, it may therefore be advisable to retain simplified internal rules. Their purpose will no longer be merely to comply with a formal procedural requirement, but to ensure proper information flow, allocation of responsibility and documentation of decisions made in the area of MDR.

No individual tax rulings and sanctions maintained

One important element of the amendment is the exclusion of the possibility to obtain an individual tax ruling on MDR provisions. Taxpayers will therefore not be able to obtain formal confirmation as to whether a given arrangement constitutes a reportable tax scheme and whether it must be reported.

At the same time, the legislator has not decided to significantly reduce penalties for breaches of MDR obligations. This means that, although the scope of reporting will be narrowed, responsibility for the correct classification of cross-border tax schemes will remain an important area of risk.

Practical conclusion

The MDR amendment is beneficial for businesses because it removes excessive obligations connected with reporting domestic tax schemes and limits the system to cross-border arrangements. This is a significant simplification, particularly for companies operating solely in Poland.

However, this is not the end of MDR. For entities operating in an international environment, reporting obligations will remain an important element of tax compliance in Poland. Before 1 October 2026, businesses should therefore not only scale back their existing procedures, but also adapt them to the new model: narrower, less formal, but still requiring careful assessment of cross-border transactions.