On 29 June, the President signed the Act amending the Act on renewable energy sources and certain other acts. If the proposed reforms enter into force, wind farm holders and owners of land on which such wind farms are located may expect changes in taxation and regulation of their mutual relationships.
The owner protected as lessee
Under the draft amendment, where the contract between the land owner and the wind farm owner fails to meet the requirements set for lease or fruendi lease contracts, the Civil Code provisions on the lessee’s obligation to return the thing (art. 675) will apply as well as the provisions on the assertion of claims under a lease contract, which is possible within a year from the date of return of the thing leased (art. 677). In consequence, even when the owners of the land and the wind farm do not conclude a lease or fruendi lease contract, the wind farm owner, upon termination of its use, will be obliged to return the immovable property to the owner in an undeteriorated condition.
Wind farm will not amount to a building
The draft amendment specifies clearly that a wind farm consists of a building and technical installation intended to generate electricity. The introduction of those amendments will conclusively put an end to the long-standing dispute over wind farm taxation. In the light of the applicable definitions of a building, entire wind farms are taxed, which significantly increases the amount of the levy. On the contrary, if the amendment enters into force, the holder of the wind farm will have to pay tax only on the value of its construction (building) and not the entire infrastructure. Together with the planned changes in the calculation of the object size coefficient, this will considerably improve the tax situation of holders of such power stations, which may really contribute to popularization of that method of generating electrical energy.