Great digital market
“We are aware that it has been created in Poland over the years Great digital market. Domestic companies need a lot of technological and financial support, both to support the development of artificial intelligence and broadly understood technology. In our opinion, the aforementioned tasks should be partly financed from the state budget, then we will realistically be called the European leader in digitization. Therefore, we must look for additional sources of money that could power the budget and allocate them for this purpose, and digital tax seems to be an obvious solution, “the Deputy Prime Minister told PAP Krzysztof Gawkowski.
“He could transfer profits from powerful global corporations, Regardless of their place of origin, to the budget, and they could later work for the development of Polish technology companies, support Polish startups, Deep Tech, cloud enterprises or creating quality content by the media ” – he explained.
Model for digital tax
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that work on the Digitization Ministry began creating a model for digital tax.
When asked which industries would be covered by such a tax, he said: “We are talking about large corporations that, of course, pay taxes, but in other countries they are much greater.”
“We will not propose any revolution – various types of taxes on activities in the digital sphere operate in 35 countries. A wide digital tax applies to, among others, in France, Austria, Great Britain and Canada “ – he said.
What will tax funds go to?
He added that he can provide Poland with competitiveness in relation to the 10 largest European economies, such as France, which recently announced investments in artificial intelligence reaching around EUR 109 billion.
He also explained that digital tax funds could also be supported by the media in creating quality content that is not rewarded by the systems Big Techów.
“Digital platforms weaken the Polish media market by dragging advertisements to each other, which really affects the financial condition of traditional media, “said the deputy prime minister.
“It’s a matter of social justicedigital giants achieve huge profits on our market, thanks to Polish users, which is why we want a part and not a fraction of these funds to return to the Polish budget ” – he added.
When will we know the details?
He pointed out that the issue of presenting the directional assumptions of digital tax would take several months, and the first meetings as part of preliminary consultations with the industry have already taken place.
“We invited representatives of social organizations and companies that are both supporters of the introduction of this solution and opponents. As a deputy prime minister on behalf of the left, I think that we must be a leader of strategic thinking about the future, and not be afraid of digital giants, because they are not the ones who shape the law in Poland,” he said.
“In the coming months there will be proposals on how to model the influence from earned by Big Techy money to support the Polish IT sector ” – he added.
Google and Microsoft investments
Asked about recently announced Google and Microsoft investments He said that every initiative of this kind is confirmed by the stability and attractiveness of the Polish market and the domestic digital economy, and also a big plus is the creation of new jobs.
“However, it should be remembered that Digital sovereignty is one of the most important elements of the modern world. Therefore, one of the ministry’s priorities is, among others Supporting the Polish cloud sector, whose development is a sense of security for Polish data stored on national servers, “he said.
“We also have to say clearly that we cannot smile at Big Techów, if they do not invest with us our funds in research and development centers. I assure you that for the Ministry of Digitization in conversations about potential investments with gigantami, R&D centers are one of the priorities” – he added.
National Data Processing Center
Deputy Prime Minister asked about progress in work on National Data Processing Centerhe replied that the project inherited from PiS rule was underestimated and did not take into account the increase in inflation, which means that the coalition government on October 15 needs additional funds for this purpose.
“Analyzes are underway, today I know that additional funds will be needed. Fortunately, the Minister of Finance recently indicated that the state must find funds for this type of investment,” he said.
In addition, Gawkowski announced that in 2025 Poland would implement the DSA Directive.
“This is a law that forces the platform to remove illegal content from the Internet. It will support users so that the platform does not duplicate disinformation and that they are responsive in crisis situations” – explained the deputy prime minister.
Maciej Białobrzeski (PAP Biznes)
