On 7 March 2025, the Polish Minister of Finance published a General Interpretation of (No. DTS5.8092.2.2025, dated 5 March 2025) regarding the legal professional privilege (LPP) of promoters and service providers in the context of the Mandatory Disclosure Rules (MDR).

General Interpretation

The General Interpretation indicates that, in light of two rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the designation "legal professional privilege" (LPP) pertains solely to the professional privilege of lawyers (advocates) and legal advisors — not to all promoters obligated to maintain LPP under national regulations. The two rulings were the judgment of 8 December 2022, in case C-694/20 Orde van Vlaamse Balies and the judgment of 29 July 2024, in case C-623/22 Belgian Association of Tax Lawyers.

The General Interpretation further states that under national MDR regulations, the CJEU rulings should be understood to mean that tax advisors and patent attorneys have the same rights related to LPP as lawyers and legal advisors (because they also have the right to represent clients in court). Consequently, this implies that they are obligated to notify other entities about the necessity of such reporting (86b section 4, 86d section 5 of the Tax Ordinance), rather than being obligated to report a tax arrangement to the Head of the National Revenue Administration (86b section 1, 86d section 1 of the Tax Ordinance).

Conversely, entities and professions that, under national laws, are not authorized to represent clients in court are not exempted from reporting a tax arrangement.

Implications

The General Interpretation should not affect the ongoing MDR obligations of tax advisors, legal advisors, lawyers or patent attorneys in connection with providing services covered by the LPP.

However, the General Interpretation may influence the current practice of understanding LPP in relation to other professions/entities, particularly those concerning banking secrecy, insurance secrecy and professional secrecy regulated by the Act on trading in financial instruments.