Poland’s government has launched a fresh bid to lure workers back home by scrapping a law that made them liable for tax in both the UK and Poland, turning many into tax exiles.
Officials have estimated Poland needs to lure 200,000 workers back into the country if it is to get stadiums and facilities ready for the 2012 European Football Championship. The Polish government also wants to use the event to make massive investments in transport infrastructure.
In a further olive branch move, the government has also pledged that as well as the five-year amnesty for tax dodgers, Poles in the UK who were honest and paid both taxes would be given a rebate by the Polish inland revenue.
The government said abolishing the law would make “all Polish emigrants in the UK happy”.
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Jacek Winnicki, secretary of the London-based Poland Street group, which campaigned to have the double-tax law abolished, said: “If a tax amnesty… becomes a fact, Poles will finally no longer be afraid of returning to Poland.
“The spectre of having to settle taxes back home has gone away. This is one of the most important factors, if not the most decisive, in encouraging people to go home.”
