The Legal-tax Status of the Institutions Performing Bank Operations (in the Light of the Interwar Experiences)

Abstract

The author touches upon the problems being at the point of contact of two fields of the law: tax law and bank law. He presents the legal-tax status of the institution performing bank operations which had been functioning in Poland in the interwar years. Aside to the institution of a private character − bank enterprises, there were public institutions − state and communal banks, and communal savings banks. The variety of the overall legal status of those institutions was reflected by the varied tax status. Bank enterprises, being a kind of wages enterprises, were taxed according to the principles of any trade enterprises. Public institutions established by public authorities in order to carry out public tasks were, in principle, not taxpayers. This would have been contrary to the economic essence of tax, an essence assuming seizure of monetary means on tax levy. Exceptionally, some of them were subject to the immovable property tax and land tax, the taxes which fulfilled not the fiscal but stimulative function. The author is of the opinion that while restoring the Polish bank and tax system one should draw on one's own patterns, which have been tested in practice.