The Ministry of Finance, tax offices and customs offices have not managed to elaborate a good method for controlling business in the Internet. There is no system for monitoring areas of potential malpractice. In the opinion of the NIK, the Ministry of Finance, as the body responsible for taxes and fiscal control supervision, should make every effort to organise e-commerce. The Ministry should, in the first place, provide appropriate legal regulations that would allow tax offices and fiscal control offices to collect amounts due on taxable services and products offered in the Internet.
Despite imperfect legal conditions, tax and custom offices carry out ad hoc audits in the field of e-commerce, using software they develop on their own. The NIK observes that the number of such audits has been increasing systematically. For instance, the number of audits of e-commerce conducted by tax offices has grown from 1.2 percent of all audits performed in 2007, through 2 percent in 2008, to almost 3 percent in the first half of 2009.
There are two basic problems that offices conducting audits of e-commerce come up against. The first is the lack of appropriate computer equipment and unlimited access to the Internet. As many as 12 out of 14 audited tax offices use the bandwidth of the Ministry of Finance whose capacity is rather limited. NIK auditors have also found that some employees of tax offices use their private bandwidths for work. The other main problem in controlling e-commerce is the limited access to data of persons involved in this activity. Some portals refuse to provide information on persons offering products or services in the Internet (e.g. Allegro) or give false names.
The lack of a precise definition of e-commerce does not allow for estimating its actual area. The term of e-commerce is popularly understood only as transactions in Internet shops and auction portals, while actually the area is much broader and covers numerous electronic services, for instance creation and maintenance of websites, provision of software and games of chance. The NIK suggests that new regulations should not limit e-commerce but they should rather liquidate the underground economy and reduce possibilities to hide incomes generated in this area.
Because of Internet tax evasions, the State Treasury losses huge sums of money every day. As a result of one series of audits, almost PLN 3.5 million have been recovered.
