SRC Law Firm represented one of the world’s leading food producers before the Supreme Administrative Court.
The case concerned the issue of the incompatibility of tax exemption with the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the interpretation of the definition of “making railway infrastructure available to a railway carrier”.
The issue of the tax exemption’s incompatibility with the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (as state aid) was resolved by a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of April 29, 2025, on the basis of which SRC Law Firm has already obtained two favorable judgments in other cases before the Provincial Administrative Courts in Gdańsk and Poznań. In the present case, the Supreme Administrative Court also relied on the CJEU judgment, which was favorable to the taxpayer.
An additional issue in the case under analysis was the interpretation of the concept of “making railway infrastructure available to a railway carrier”. The Supreme Administrative Court agreed with our firm’s position, opting for a broad understanding of “making available” and pointing out that the mere signing of a siding agreement allowing for the possibility of entering the tracks already constitutes a manifestation of “making the infrastructure available to the carrier” , which results in exemption from property tax on the infrastructure and the entire plot of land on which it is located.
The above constitutes a departure from the previous case law of the Supreme Administrative Court, which emphasized the condition of actual, rather than merely potential, availability of the infrastructure to the carrier.
The case was heard before the Supreme Administrative Court under reference number III FSK 768/23, and the client was represented by Alicja Popłonkowska-Dębińska, attorney-at-law, on behalf of SRC Law Firm.
“This ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court is another example of a case in which our firm’s arguments led to a breakthrough in court rulings in favor of property tax payers. It shows that fighting for your rights makes sense, even despite the unfavorable case law.” – points out Łukasz Caban, partner at SRC Law Firm.
