Among the laws passed by the Sejm are those on restricting trade on Sundays. As of March 1, 2018, there will be two trading Sundays per month - the first and the last; in 2019, the last Sunday of each month will be commercial, and as of 2020 there is to be a ban on trading on Sundays.

In addition, the Diet passed a law increasing health spending to 6 percent of GDP in 2025. Next year, no less than 4.67 percent of GDP is to be spent on health.

Legislation abolishing the upper limit on pension contributions, above which no contributions were paid until now.

Amendments to the Act on bio-components and liquid biofuels bring Polish law into line with EU regulations on the quality of gasoline and diesel fuel and on promoting the use of energy from renewable sources. The purpose of the amendment is to facilitate the implementation of the National Indicative Target (NIT) by fuel entities and change the structure of its implementation. The NCW specifies the minimum share of biocomponents and other renewable fuels in the total amount of liquid fuels and liquid biofuels consumed during the year in transportation. Another goal is to ensure an outlet for the domestic biocomponent manufacturing sector at least at the current level.

Facilitating the establishment and operation of social cooperatives and broadening the scope of support is the goal of an amendment to the Law on Social Cooperatives. It will be easier to establish a social cooperative thanks to a conditional reduction in the number of founders from five to three people, as long as they are natural persons. A new profile of social cooperative - of a service nature - will also be introduced.

Abolition of the upper limit for pension and disability insurance contributions, above which no contributions were paid until now (the so-called 30-fold). According to the amendment to the Law on the Social Insurance System, pension and disability insurance premiums will be paid on the total income, so analogously to sickness and accident insurance.

Basic tax data of the largest companies - CIT taxpayers - will be published in the Public Information Bulletin is the main change included in the amendment to the Corporate Income Tax Act. It applies to taxpayers in which the value of income earned in the tax year exceeded the amount equivalent to the equivalent of EUR 50 million. The amendment will also cover tax capital groups (regardless of the amount of income earned).

The creation of a sustainable, systemic instrument to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises using loan repayment guarantees, based on the National Guarantee Fund, is one of the goals of the amendment to the Law on Guarantees and Warranties Issued by the State Treasury.

The amendments to the Law on National Fiscal Administration and its implementing regulations concern the transformation of the Ministry of Finance's budget unit, the Finance Ministry Information Technology Center, into a unit to provide IT services for the entire Finance Ministry. At the same time, it is assumed that the establishment of the National Tax Administration Informatics Center will be abandoned. The aim of the consolidation is to economize the IT operations of the Finance Ministry in the long term and at the same time to improve the availability and security of IT systems, as well as to ensure the uniform quality of IT services provided in the area of operations of the entire ministry (about 700 locations).

The fight against extortion of goods and services tax is the main objective of the amendment of laws to counteract the use of the financial sector for tax extortion. It imposes new duties on the Head of the National Tax Administration. These include analyzing the risk of using banks or SKOKs to commit fiscal crimes and offenses.

Law on the restriction of trade on Sundays. It will come into force on March 1, 2018, and it is from that moment that there will be two trading Sundays (the first and last) in the following months next year, in 2019. - one Sunday per month (the last one), and from 2020 the trade ban will already be in effect on all Sundays (with some exceptions).

The amendment to the Law on the Exercise of the Mandate of Deputies and Senators introduces the possibility of reducing the emolument and reducing or losing the parliamentary allowance of parliamentarians who violate the dignity of the Sejm, the Senate or the National Assembly. Currently, this is possible in cases where a parliamentarian, by grossly violating the rules of procedure, prevents the work of the Chambers as well as their bodies, and when he or she fails to attend their meetings without justification.

The 2018 Circular Budget Law is closely related to the draft budget law for next year. The provisions it contains correspond to the amounts included in the draft budget and ensure its proper implementation. The law provides for solutions in several sectors: Public Finance, Labor Fund, Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund, Gambling Resolution Fund, Post-Penitentiary Assistance and Victims Assistance Fund, Physical Culture Development Fund.

The amendments to the Waste Act bring Polish law in line with EU regulations, including the Waste Directive, which gives member states the ability to take into account the impact of local climatic conditions on the efficiency of electricity production. The new regulations are also intended to counteract unfavorable phenomena in waste management and support the fight against the "gray zone."

The amendment to the Act on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism and Certain Other Acts is aimed at changing provisions that raise interpretation doubts and regulating issues at the statutory level that will enable municipalities to more efficiently achieve the Act's goals of limiting the availability of alcoholic beverages.

Amendments to the Law on Nature Protection and the Law on the Protection and Care of Monuments are expected to clean up regulations on the removal of trees and shrubs from properties listed in the Register of Historic Places.

Resolutions adopted by the Chamber

Resolution on commemorating the 650th anniversary of the privilege granted by Casimir the Great to Armenians in Poland.

Resolution on commemorating Gen. Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki on the 150th anniversary of his birth and 80th anniversary of his death.

A resolution to condemn the ideology and consequences of the Bolshevik Revolution. In the document, the Diet also paid tribute to all its victims.

Resolution on the 150th anniversary of the birth of President Ignacy Moscicki. Moscicki was president of the Republic of Poland from 1926 to 1939. The anniversary falls on December 1.

Photo by Krzysztof Białoskórski

text by the Chancellery of the Sejm