WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland plans to introduce an "exit tax" of up to 19 percent on companies and wealthy individuals who move assets or production abroad, the finance ministry said in draft legislation due to come into force in 2019.
The tax will be imposed when assets are moved outside Poland and the country loses its right to tax income from the sale of those assets, or when a person with shares or other financial assets worth at least 2 million zloty (£424,565) moves abroad for good, the ministry said.
"The tax on unrealized income amounts to 1) 19 percent of the tax base, when the tax value of an asset is set 2) 3 percent of the tax base, when the tax value of an asset is not set," the ministry said in a draft sent to Reuters.
The ministry said that the aim of the project is to implement the European Union's tax evasion directive. The ministry also said it wanted to improve tax collection.
Next year Poland wants to keep the budget deficit at around 28.5 billion zloty, at the same level as in 2018, while at the same time the economic growth is expected by analysts to slow down to 3.7 percent from 4.8 percent seen in 2018 denting budget revenues.
Polish daily Rzeczpospolita said, quoting tax experts, that the Polish government's aim was to gather more budget revenues, especially since the EU directive concerns companies only, not individuals.
Some opponents of the exit tax say it would deter foreigners from starting businesses in the country. In May France's President Emmanuel Macron said he planned to scrap a 30 percent tax on entrepreneurs who seek to take their money out of France.
(Reporting by Marcin Goclowski; Editing by Toby Chopra)