Michał Bernat is a counsel in Dentons’ Warsaw office and a member of the Warsaw Tax Advisory and Competition practice teams. He specializes in tax planning and optimization of direct investment and M&A transactions, investment incentives, infrastructure development and restructuring operations. He has more than 14 years of experience with transactions, investment structuring and advisory in greenfield and brownfield projects. He regularly assists key global and national clients in sectors ranging from heavy industry and energy to financial services. Michał has extensive practical experience in tax and state aid matters at EU and international level through time spent at a law firm in Brussels, his academic activities and previous appointments at the European Commission in Brussels and at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Michal Bernat has been a lecturer at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics since May 2021.
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Background & facts of the case A private company incorporated in Poland by a Polish archdiocese of the Catholic Church applied for an EU-funded subsidy intended for development of tourism. It indicated in the subsidy application that it was a small enterprise within the meaning of GBER (...)
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Background & facts of the case The case related to the Polish flagship programme of regional investment aid customarily referred to as Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which essentially provides an exemption from corporate income tax (CIT) in an amount proportionate to investment costs (...)
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Background & facts of the case In the facts of the case a company received in 2008 state aid towards the cost of employment of the handicapped, which was conditional, among others, on timely payment by the beneficiary company of social security contributions. Polish authorities discovered (...)
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Background & facts of the case Based on a tender and a respective concession agreement Polish authorities entrusted in 1997 a private Polish company Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. with construction and operation of a motorway. Following Poland’s accession to the EU, national laws were (...)
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Background & facts of the case The case formed part of a vast group of disputes arising from a refusal by Polish authorities to apply to beneficiaries exemptions from real estate tax that had been granted by Poland prior to Polish accession to the EU without any notification of that aid (...)
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Background & facts of the case The dispute arose from an application for EU funds, submitted by a local Polish authority to the national institution managing the funds, for a project involving modernization of a local swimming pool, as well as revitalization of a local marketplace. (...)
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Background & facts of the case The judgment forms part of a possibly largest dispute recently had in Poland in the area of private enforcement of state aid law. It was sparked with enactment by Poland in 2016, with effect as from 2017, of new rules which, in the view of tax authorities, (...)
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Background & facts of the case The case related to local 2002 laws exempting certain businesses from real estate tax, which continued to apply also after Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, albeit without being ever notified. Local tax authorities chose to disapply the exemption to the (...)
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Background & facts of the case Polish authorities enacted special legislation allowing holders of perpetual usufruct to have that right transformed upon request into ownership free of charge. The legislation contained a provision stipulating that it shall apply without prejudice to state (...)
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Polish green certificates held by Commission to be compatible State aid: a curious story comes to an end* On 2 August 2016, the Commission issued its long-awaited and precedent-setting decision in a case involving Polish green certificates issued to producers of energy from renewable energy (...)
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Background & facts of the case The case originated from the Commission’s decision no. C 23/06 (ex NN 35/06), which declared as incompatible the aid considered to be granted by Polish authorities due to their failure to collect from a company Technologie Buczek social security contributions (...)
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Background & facts of the case Under the facts of the case a limited liability company applied for an EU-funded subsidy supporting investment in a photovoltaic installation, indicating in the application that it had a status of a microenterprise. The funding authority challenged that (...)
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The court reviewed a decision of local Polish authorities which ordered reimbursement by a small undertaking of an EU-funded subsidy, due to alleged breach of incentive effect rules by that undertaking. More specifically, the authorities found that the beneficiary undertaking made an advance (...)
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Background & facts of the case The case concerned a minor Polish business trading locally in fuels, which following Poland’s accession to the EU had obtained a decision facilitating payment of its VAT arrears under a special pre-accession restructuring program provided in Polish law for (...)
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Background & facts of the case The dispute arose under a subsidy agreement made between a private undertaking from the fish processing industry and a public agency distributing EU funds, which refused to pay the subsidy to the beneficiary and was referred to a civil court accordingly. (...)
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