The Senate wants to exempt Ukrainians and Belarusians from tax. The fake is back. We explain

''The Senate adopted a resolution on the exemption from income tax of citizens of Ukraine and Belarus who settled in Poland after the outbreak of the war. Now the resolution will go to the Sejm'' – Internet users could read this information in the photo (screenshot) attached to entry from October 13, posted on the X website by an anonymous user.

You can read further: “Exemption from income tax is a privilege for refugees, which millions of Poles cannot count on. Let us remind you that PiS, together with KO, Left, PSL and Polska2050, have already adopted multi-billion social programs for refugees, including 500+, 300 +, ''. After the comma, the sentence ends. The Internet user who published this information wrote: ''Well, you know… well Is”. The post has been viewed over 236,000 times so far. times.

The announcement about alleged tax breaks for Ukrainians and Belarusians caused considerable outrage among those commenting on the entry. ''It's not good and it won't be. Everything is falling apart at a rapid pace. They robbed us of money and honor'; Now let them have the right to vote in the elections and things will get interesting”; “betrayal”; “In our own country, we are second-class people,” wrote Internet users (original spelling of all posts).

The post was also eagerly retweeted, among others by Tomasz Sommer, editor-in-chief of the portal Nczas.com and the biweekly “Najzywa Czas!”, founded by Janusz Korwin-Mikke. Sommer shared entry November 14, 2024. “So you can abolish income tax. You just need to want it,” he commented. His post has been viewed over 26,000 times. times.

The message was also spread on other social media, for example on Facebook. On November 12, 2024, one of the users quoted the same content that is distributed on X, but in a longer version. The sentence does not end after a comma, but reads as follows: “Let us remind you that PiS, together with KO, Left, PSL and Polska2050, have already adopted multi-billion social programs for refugees, including PLN 500+, PLN 300+, and PLN 12,000 family allowance. Now there may be an exemption from PIT, something hard-working Poles can only dream of…'' ''A Pole is a second-class citizen in his own home country. A shameful bill – Form 2069,” adds the Internet user, and then cites several articles that are supposed to prove that refugees are privileged. “This is the first case in the history of the world when immigrants receive greater rights than citizens who live in this country “I guess it's only in Poland that this circus happens. Poles are slaves,” he adds (original spelling).

We found many entries with this narrative online, published by anonymous accounts. This may indicate a coordinated disinformation campaign.

However, this message is neither new nor true. IN Konkret24 already in April 2024, we verified the thesis about the Senate resolution, which was supposed to introduce tax breaks for Ukrainians and Belarusians. So let us remind you what is wrong with this narrative.

Posts with the same thesis appeared on social media in the spring of 2024. These entries were misleading because the Senate resolution does not result in any changes in the law. Resolutionwhich Internet users wrote about, was adopted by the Senate on April 12, 2022, but it concerned “the submission to the Sejm of a bill on amending certain tax laws in connection with military operations carried out on the territory of Ukraine” and not “exemption from income tax of citizens of Ukraine and Belarusians who lived in Poland after the outbreak of the war,” according to Internet users. By this resolution, the Senate exercised the right to legislative initiative, which it is guaranteed art. 118. of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski was appointed as the project's rapporteur.

The Senate's resolution concerned a draft law that “introduces changes, among others, in PIT and CIT taxes (in relation to, among others, citizens of Ukraine and Belarus) and assumes the establishment of episodic tax regulations aimed at counteracting the effects of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.” However, the bill was criticized by, among others, Spokesman for Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurs, Adam Abramowicz, or Vice-President of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, Dariusz Szymwycha.

Form number 2069which was also mentioned by Internet users, in turn government bill on “assisting citizens of Ukraine in connection with an armed conflict on the territory of this country”. It concerns the definition of specific rules for legalizing in the territory of the country of stay of Ukrainians who came to Poland directly in connection with military operations in the territory of their country. In addition, the project defined forms of support citizens of Ukraine, including, among others, specific rules for entrusting them with work and the rules for starting and conducting business activities.

As we wrote in April, yes act she stayed signed by the president on March 12, 2022, i.e one month before the adoption of the Senate resolution described in the text. In the previous, 9th term of office of the Sejm, the Senate bill was not given even a form number, hence it was not discussed at the meeting of the relevant committee or in the plenary chamber. In the 10th term of office of the Sejm, it is not being processed either – it has been submitted discontinuation. We asked Senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski about the fate of the proposed regulations and whether further work on them is planned. As of press time, we have not received a response.

In turn, in May 2022, Senator Kwiatkowski himself explained that “these regulations were created shortly after Russia's aggression against Ukraine and it cannot be ruled out that they require in-depth analysis and further work,” the website reported. Money.pl. The project referred to in the Senate's resolution ultimately did not enter into force and is not legally binding.

Additionally, the alleged articles from the government project (form no. 2069), which the Internet user refers to in her Facebook post, were not included in it at all. For example, Art. 9., which, according to the author of the entry, was supposed to give refugees “free accommodation, 24-hour meals, free transport”, in fact concerns the creation of a trusted profile for Ukrainian citizens. Similarly with art. 13., which, according to the Internet user, concerns “Poland's debt to support Ukrainian citizens.” This provision actually regulates the issue of monetary benefits due to persons providing accommodation and food to Ukrainians.

In our text from April 2024, we also drew attention to the fact that duplicate entries with a false thesis appeared on the Internet already in April 2022, i.e. at the time when the Senate resolution was adopted. Claims about the alleged exemption from income tax of citizens of Ukraine and Belarus appeared, among others, on the Confederation's social media accounts.