National Revenue
Administration

Payment service providers

From 1 January 2024, Payment Service Providers have new obligations to maintain and provide records of selected cross-border transactions.

These obligations were introduced by the Act of 14 April 2023 amending the Act on the tax on goods and services and certain other acts, which implements Directive 2020/284 of 18 February 2020 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards the introduction of certain requirements for payment service providers.

The text of the Act can be found at: Journal of Laws 2023, item 996.

Obligation to keep records

The obligation to keep and provide records of recipients of payments and cross-border payments in relation to the payment services they provide arises when all of the following conditions are met:

• payments made by the payment service provider will be cross-border payments, i.e. funds will be transferred from a payer located in a Member State European Union (EU) country, European Economic Area (EEA) country) to a payment recipient located in another Member State or outside the EU or EEA, and
• the payment service provider makes more than 25 payments to the same payment recipient in a given Member State during a calendar quarter.

The obligation to keep and provide records applies to:

• the payment service provider of the payment recipient - if it is located in a Member State;
• the payment service provider of the payer - if none of the payment service providers of the payment recipient is located in a Member State (this concerns a so-called extra-EU payment).

The period for which the records are kept by payment service providers is 3 years from the end of the tax year in which the payment was made.

Who provides the records?

The entities that are subject to the obligation to maintain and provide records of selected cross-border transactions on the above principles are the following payment service providers:

• a domestic bank within the meaning of art. 4 sec. 1 item 1 of the Act of 29 August 1997 - Banking Law, i.e. a domestic bank with its registered office in the territory of the Republic of Poland,
• a branch of a foreign bank within the meaning of art. 4 sec. 1 item 20 of the Banking Law, i.e. an organizational unit of a foreign bank performing on its behalf and for its benefit all or some of the activities resulting from the authorization granted to that bank, where all organizational units of a given foreign bank corresponding to the above characteristics, established in the territory of the Republic of Poland, are considered to be one branch,
• a credit institution within the meaning of art. 4 sec. 1 item 17 of the Banking Law and, accordingly, a branch of a credit institution within the meaning of art. 4 sec. 1 item 18 of the Banking Law; i.e. a credit institution referred to in art. 4 sec. 1 item 1 of Regulation 575/2013 of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, having its registered office in the territory of a Member State other than the Republic of Poland and a branch of a credit institution referred to in art. 4 sec. 1 item 17 of Regulation 575/2013, which is not a branch of a domestic bank or a branch of a foreign bank, 
• an electronic money institution and a branch of an electronic money institution – in the case where the branch is located in a Member State and the registered office of such electronic money institution is located outside a Member State, provided that the payment services provided by the branch are related to the issuing of electronic money,
• a branch of an entity providing postal payment services in a Member State other than the Republic of Poland, in accordance with the law of that country, authorised in accordance with the law of that country to provide payment services, and Poczta Polska Spółka Akcyjna to the extent that separate provisions authorise it to provide payment services,
• a payment institution,
• a cooperative savings and credit union or the National Cooperative Savings and Credit Union within the meaning of the Act of 5 November 2009 on cooperative savings and credit unions, to the extent that separate provisions authorise them to provide payment services.

The obligation does not apply to payment service providers such as:

• payment service offices,
• small payment institutions.

To whom the records are provided?

The records containing data on selected cross-border transactions are provided to the Head of the National Revenue Administration if, for a payment service provider who is required to maintain and provide records containing such data, Poland is:

• home Member State (i.e. the one in which it has its registered office or, in the absence thereof, where its principal place of business is located) or
• the host Member State (i.e. a country other than the country of origin, in which the provider provides cross-border payment services through branches located in that country or through an agent conducting business there).

If, for a payment service provider who is required to keep and make available records, its registered office or principal place of business is located in a Member State other than Poland, the records are made available to the competent authority of that Member State (as the home Member State).

If the payment service provider provides cross-border payment services that are subject to the obligation to keep and make available records in a Member State other than the home country through its branch or agent, the obligation to make records available is fulfilled towards the competent authority of that other Member State (as the host Member State).

The records are shared electronically in the form of a structured XML file.

Data collected at the national level is transferred to the Central Electronic System Of Payment (CESOP) every quarter.

Scope of data covered by the records

1. BIC (Bank Identifier Code) or another identification code that uniquely identifies the payment service provider;
2. name and surname or name of the payee in accordance with the data held by the payment service provider;
3. number by which the payee is identified for tax or value added tax purposes or another number by which the payee is identified for tax purposes, if available;
4. IBAN (International Bank Account Number), and if IBAN is not available - another identifier that uniquely identifies the payee and provides its location;
5. in the event that the payee receives funds without having a payment account - BIC or another identification code that uniquely identifies the payment service provider acting on behalf of the payee and provides its location;
6. address of the payee, if available, in accordance with the data held by the payment service provider;
7. the following data relating to cross-border payments and refunds identified as relating to cross-border payments:

1. the date and time of the payment or refund,
2. the amount and currency of the payment or refund,
3. the Member State of origin of the payment received by the payee or on behalf of the payee, or the Member State of destination of the refund, as appropriate, and the information used to determine the origin, destination or refund, as appropriate,
4. information other than that listed in points a-c, which unambiguously identifies the payment,
5. in the case where the payment is initiated at a merchant's point of sale - information on the physical presence of the payer when initiating that payment.

Reporting periods for PSP and submission deadlines:

• 1st Period, Q1 (January- March): 30 April
• 2nd Period, Q2 (April-June): 31 July
• 3rd Period, Q3 (July-September): 31 October
• 4th Period, Q4 (October-December): 31 January

Each subsequent transfer to CESOP will take place for the quarterly period by the 10th day of the second month following the end of the quarter to which the information relates.

Test environment

We have provided a test environment that allows you to check the correctness of sending records of payment recipients and cross-border payments in relation to the payment services they provide.

This environment is available at: https://test-e-dokumenty.mf.gov.pl.

A detailed description can be found in the JPK (Standard Control File) Service Interface Specification version 4.1.

Note: data sent as part of the tests should be fictitious data and should not contain actual personal data.

Production environment

On April 2nd, we launched the production environment for payment service providers, which provides the ability to send files in XML format, compliant with the XSD Schema.
We launched:

• a registering form (PSP-FR) authorized representatives of payment service providers,
• a Standard Audit File (JPK gateway) service interface, which allows for checking compliance with the schema and sending records to our systems,
• an application for sending files to our systems, which allows for checking the status of the sent file using the received reference number (as well as downloading the UPO, Error Report, Validation Report).

The application and registration form are available at the following addresses: https://kwd.mf.gov.pl/cesop and https://kwd.mf.gov.pl/client.

The Standard Audit File (e-Documents Gateway) service interface is available at: https://e-dokumenty.mf.gov.pl/.

Contact

Questions regarding the functioning of the system and the transfer of records can be directed to: cesop@mf.gov.pl.

More information on the CESOP system and the transfer and exchange of data on cross-border payments can be found on the European Commission website.

Legal basis

1. Act of 14 February 2023 amending the Act on Goods and Services Tax and certain other acts.
2. Directive 2020/284 of 18 February 2020 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards the introduction of certain requirements for payment service providers.
3. Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax.
4. Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC, 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC.
5. Council Regulation (EU) 2020/283 of 18 February 2020 amending Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as regards measures to strengthen administrative cooperation to combat VAT fraud, the so-called "CESOP Regulation". Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1504 of 6 April 2022 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as regards the establishment of a central electronic payment information system (CESOP) to combat VAT fraud.