Reports POLAND MARKET
People under 26 years of age are now exempt from income tax to encourage them to remain in Poland, plus there are lower taxes planned for the general population. Te income tax exemption came into effect mid 2019 and means around two million workers with an annual income of less than PLN85,528 (€22,547) don’t have to pay the 18 per cent income tax.
month whilst the minimum hourly rate of PLN14.70 (€3.30) was introduced.
In addition, people under 26 years of age are now exempt from income tax to encourage them to remain in Poland, plus there are lower taxes planned for the general population. Te income tax exemption came into effect mid 2019 and means around two million young workers with an annual income of less than PLN85,528 (€22,547) don’t have to pay the 18 per cent income tax. It is hoped this will help increase sectors such as retail, real estate and leisure activities. And it seems to be working.
Te construction and real estate sectors are booming and international companies such as IBM, Citi Group and Credit Swiss are relocating part of their operations to Poland.
Te country has also found new sectors to focus on and one of the fastest growing markets is video game development. Poland now boasts several critically acclaimed games including
P44 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
those by CD Projekt Red, developer of the Witcher series, Techland (Dead Island series), Flying Wild Hog (Shadow Warrior) and CI Games (Sniper Ghost Warrior).
Te video games sector has exploded mostly due to cheap costs and publishing. A country which once had no access to Western video games has been absorbing this technology and leisure activity for the last 30 years. Tere is a huge demand in Poland for video games stemming back to youngsters playing on pirate games in the early 80s.
Western publishers have been investing in Poland and are outsourcing their projects in a country with lower labour costs. Tere are around 300 game developing companies operating in Poland at the moment. Te internal market is big. As of 2018 video game sales in Poland were worth around €485m (about 24th in the world).
Te government has also backed the industry
providing schemes and grants to help developers of all sizes plus initiatives to support start ups and contests for student projects.
But despite the positives, Poland is still a far cry from an economic utopia. Politically there are issues. Regardless of the favourable economic policies the country has a rather nationalist and xenophobic party in power.
POLITICS AND TOURISM Poland has seen 17 different governments since
1990 and the most recent general election in October 2019 saw the Law and Justice Party (PiS) reinstated. Te PiS has governed Poland since 2015, when after eight years in opposition,
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