On December 23, 2020, the European Commission approved the Polish program titled "Tarcza finansowa dla MŚP 2.0" (Eng. Financial Buckler for SMEs 2.0). This program is addressed to companies that had to reduce or suspend their activities due to the pandemic. The scheme consists of aid in the form of a grant for micro enterprises and in the form of a subsidy to uncovered fixed costs for small and medium-sized enterprises. The budget of the program is PLN 13 billion (approximately EUR 2.91 billion), of which PLN 6.5 billion is to be allocated to micro-enterprises and PLN 6.5 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises. It is possible to transfer up to 20% of funds between the two forms of support while maintaining the budget of PLN 13 billion.
Companies that are registered and run their activity in Poland are allowed to use this type of support, but they need to meet certain criteria, as presented below:
• must record a decrease in turnover by at least 30% in the period: April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 compared to the period April 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 or the period October 1, 2020 to December 31 2020 compared to the period from October 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019;
• entrepreneurs who do not have tax arrears and social security contributions on December 31, 2019 or December 31, 2020 or on the day of submitting the application;
• they operated in the same way on 31 December 2019 and as at the date of application of the measures (business activity conducted on both of the above dates);
• they were not in liquidation, bankruptcy or restructuring on the day of submitting the application;
• are registered in the territory of the Republic of Poland in CEIDG or in the Register of Entrepreneurs of the National Court Register (KRS);
• having tax residence in the European Economic Area.
Support for companies employing from 1 to 9 employees with an annual turnover or balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 2,000,000, up to a maximum of PLN 36,000 per employee. If the entrepreneur has already received aid in the previous program period, the maximum amount of funding received from both programs may not exceed PLN 72,000 per employee.
The aid for companies employing up to 249 employees from 38 PKD industries with an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50,000,000 or a balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43,000,000 takes the form of returnable advances, which will cover part of the uncovered fixed costs of those enterprises in the case of which the COVID outbreak is 19 resulted in the suspension or limitation of their activities. The aid will be granted to companies which experience a decrease in turnover of at least 30% between 1 November 2020 and 31 March 2021.
As the Covid-19 situation is still not stable yet, we suppose that many other supporting iniciatives will occur in the nearest future.
