On July 4, 2023, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 1a (1) (2) of the Law on Local Taxes and Fees is unconstitutional and determined that it will cease to be effective 18 months after the judgment is published in the Dziennik Ustaw of the Republic of Poland.
The challenged provision contains a definition of a structure as an object of property taxation and stipulates that a structure is a construction object within the meaning of the construction law, which is not a building or a small architecture object, as well as a construction device within the meaning of the construction law related to a construction object, which ensures that the object can be used in accordance with its purpose.
According to the Court, the basic constitutional problem in the case concerned the determination of the subject of property tax in the case of structures on the basis of criteria not expressed in the provisions of the Law on Local Taxes and Fees. The Court also argued that, in its view, it is not permissible to regulate such essential elements of the legal construction of a tax as its object in a non-tax law. The Court noted that Article 84 and Article 217 of the Constitution imply a heightened standard of legal determinacy inherent in the tax law. The elements of the legal construction of a tax enumerated in Article 217 of the Constitution, and in particular the subject matter of the tax, must arise from the law and be regulated with such precision that the taxpayer knows whether the law connects with the subject matter concerning him.