White List: what information about Polish companies does it contain?
VAT status, bank account numbers and basic data identifying the company in Poland — such information about companies is collected by the list of VAT taxpayers White List (Biała Lista). Learn more about this open data source.
What information about companies can be found on the White List of VAT payers in Poland?
The White List (pol.: Biała Lista) is a colloquial name used to define the list of VAT taxpayers kept by the Head of the National Revenue Administration in Poland. The list of VAT taxpayers in Poland was put into use on September 1, 2019. The White List is sometimes also called the list of bank accounts, because in addition to the VAT status of the entity in Poland on a given day, it is also possible to verify the numbers of the company’s bank accounts.
The White List is a database of 1.7 million entities with “active” VAT status and almost 0.2 million entities exempt from that obligation.
The purpose of creating the White List of VAT in Poland was to tighten the tax system by obliging entrepreneurs to check the company bank account numbers of their contractors. These actions were to reduce the risk of involvement in VAT fraud, which are sometimes committed by entrepreneurs unknowingly.
Information you will find on the so-called White List in Poland
Basic data identifying the entity and VAT status on a given day:
- Company name or entrepreneur’s name and surname
- The number that was used to identify the entity for tax purposes
- Taxpayer status (as at the date of verification)
- REGON number
- KRS number
- Address of the registered office, permanent place of business or place of residence
Additional information about the entity and bank account numbers:
- Details of proxies and their tax identification numbers
- Data on persons who are members of the body authorized to represent the entity, along with their tax identification numbers
- The name of the company or the name and surname of the partner and his tax identification number
- Numbers of settlement accounts or accounts at SKOK (credit union in Poland)
Important dates regarding the VAT status of the entity:
- Date of registration as a VAT payer
- Date of refusal to register as a VAT payer
- Legal ground for refusing registration
- Date of cancellation of registration as a VAT payer
- Legal grounds for deletion
- Date of reinstatement of registration as a VAT payer
- Legal basis for restoration
Information from the White List — examples
In the above examples, in places marked in blue, there is sensitive personal data, therefore, for security purposes, they have been hidden.
Who should check bank accounts numbers on the VAT White List?
Why is the information on the VAT status and the verification of the contractor’s account number on the White List so important? They allow you to verify whether a given contractor on the day of finalizing the transaction was an active VAT taxpayer and to which company account the amount due for the transaction should be transferred. Failure to comply with these obligations may result in, among others:
- Loss of the right to deduct VAT in transactions equal to or greater than PLN 15K PLN, which concern the delivery of goods or services, confirmed by a VAT invoice, provided by an active VAT payer
- The necessity to bear joint and several liability for the seller’s VAT arrears
If the amount due from the transaction is transferred to the company’s VAT taxpayer account, but there is no information about this bank account in the White List database, then the tax office competent for the given entity should be notified within 7 days from the date of the transaction that there is no bank account number available on the White List. This will prevent the loss of the right to deduct VAT.
VAT White List — a way to automatically obtain data in simple reports
As a provider of economic data, Transparent Data enables the verification of data in the White List using the module on the Data Integrator platform or in the White List Reports (pol.: Raport Biała Lista). The White List report allows you to quickly find the address of the tax office that is appropriate for a given contractor, and you will not find such data in the White List database. Such verification of the entity in Poland in the list of VAT taxpayers White List is possible via the well-known platform Data Integrator or API.
The data of the companies that we provide via API are consistent with the current status in the List of VAT Taxpayers of the Polish Ministry of Finance. By using this solution, you have the option to:
- Asking for a tax identification number for a given bank account or bank account numbers for a given tax identification number
- Asking whether a given tax identification number and bank account exist
- Verification of the company’s VAT status on a given day (including back date)
All data on the entity from the List of VAT Taxpayers in Poland plus information about the relevant tax office and all other data about the entity from the White List Report can be obtained in JSON or PDF format.
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