Almost every Pole can afford their own home
Conclusion. Read the beginning of the article: LIVING EUROPEAN-STYLE: Poland (Part 1)
BUSINESS: INCENTIVES FOR HISTORY
Now, to become a businessperson in Poland, you only need to fill out one application and submit it at your place of residence – in the district or regional center. The authorities will do the rest themselves: they will submit your application to both the central government and the local tax office. All you have to do is work and earn.
The amount of income tax depends on earnings: people earning less than 85,000 zlotys (about 360,000 UAH) per year pay 18% of the amount, minus 556 zlotys (a development subsidy). If annual earnings exceed 85,000 zlotys, the tax will be nearly 15,000 zlotys (62,000 UAH) per year, plus 32% on profits made above those 85,000. The tax amount is not small, but it allows Poles to feel protected – because the taxpayer can count on truly free medical care and an immediate response from authorities when requested.
Private entrepreneur Grzegorz Hajduk, owner of a pier with kayaks (open two-person boats) and a small café on the shore, started a year ago with 30 kayaks. Now he has 100, and next to it is a solid wooden building housing a restaurant and a hotel. Building the hotel took six months, and another six months were spent coordinating standards with all services.
"The firefighters come for free and issue an order to fix any faults if they find them. They found some in my case," Grzegorz smiles, "which is why the building's commissioning was delayed. With the sanitary-epidemiological station it's more complicated: after receiving an invitation, they have two weeks to visit the site. I didn't want to delay, so I went to pick them up myself – that's not prohibited. This service is paid: an hour of a specialist's work costs 40 zlotys (about 170 UAH). But if no deficiencies are found, no fee is charged. They didn't find any in my case – so I only spent money on gas," Grzegorz tells us.
His business brings him less than 85,000 zlotys per year, so he pays a reduced tax and is satisfied with his earnings.
We meet the second entrepreneur, Władysław Tato, in an elegant three-story restaurant. In the 18th century, this building housed a granary, then for many years it stood half-ruined. At that time, Władysław, who has a construction business and therefore available funds, approached the authorities with a proposal to restore the historical site and turn it into a restaurant. The authorities embraced the idea with enthusiasm and offered him a loan for the reconstruction of the granary (at just 2% per annum). When he refused, they provided incentives for his main business: reduced taxes to 16% – until the new restaurant becomes self-sustaining.
"I place advertisements for the restaurant on local TV channels and in newspapers. The number of customers is growing. So, I think that very soon the taxes will return to their previous level for me," Władysław predicts with a smile.
TOURISM: DEVELOPING REGIONS
The Opole Voivodeship was the first in Poland to launch a rural development program. But they plan to develop the village not in an agricultural sense, as one might think in Ukraine, but in a tourism sense.
"Farming here is highly developed and mechanized. As a result, villagers have a lot of free time and the opportunity to engage in a new activity – green tourism. Some breed horses and organize rides on these animals. Others get permission, build a small pond near a lake belonging to the voivodeship, raise trout there, and open a fish restaurant. Then they release the trout into the lake and organize sport fishing competitions that attract anglers from all over the voivodeship. Someone has their own bread production, and they bring groups of schoolchildren to show them the process of baking buns. The children are fed there and sold souvenirs," Barbara Kamińska tells us.
The authorities also promote an active lifestyle. Local hotels reduce their rates on weekends: it is believed that on weekdays, hotels are occupied by people on business trips, so the company pays for them. But on weekends, ordinary people stay in hotels, and overcharging them is bad form.
They also have the Polish Tourist Organization – a state association promoting Poland in the world as a tourist destination. "Our goal is to tell that Poland is not only Zakopane and Krakow, but also many small towns with ancient castles and unique attractions," says the organization's representative in Kyiv, Olena Bondarenko.
FASHION: HEALTH AND SPORTS
The authorities in Poland have taken up the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The ideal office worker has not a gram of fat on their body. The propaganda has borne fruit: the number of smokers has decreased by a third (6 million instead of 9 million). Leading a healthy lifestyle is now very fashionable: Poles go on picnics on weekends, go rafting, and prefer eco-products grown without herbicides. This is told to us by Ukrainian Volodymyr Lyakh – he is from Ternopil but has been working in Poland for 13 years.
"To guests who rent bicycles (10-20 zlotys per day (40-80 UAH), we offer dishes made from organic vegetables and grains of our own production. I myself have learned to distinguish organic tomatoes from those grown with fertilizers. But when it comes to alcohol, I prefer Ukrainian – because I am confident in its quality. They have been sending it to me from home for 13 years," Volodymyr said, pouring out 'Khortytsia' vodka.
TAKING EXAMPLE FROM OUR NEIGHBOR
Ukrainians look at Poles with white envy. Many of our compatriots consider the Polish leap an economic miracle, and while admiring the well-groomed courtyards of Polish villages, they dream that one day such order will be in our native country. We are surprised by many things: the mass willingness of Poles to travel on weekends, neat houses, the level of civilization. But Poles complain about their lives... tirelessly. Because their neighbors are the Czech Republic and Germany.
“Oh, we have small salaries. The Germans have earnings...” Poles say dreamily, glancing enviously towards the border with the ‘Bundes’. “We are active and hardworking? No, we're lazy as cats! The Czechs are the ones. They both work and rest, they never sit still,” athlete Grzegorz sincerely does not understand our compliments.
Poles can be understood. After all, it's a normal human practice to compare oneself with a neighbor. And if he suddenly lives better, to strive towards him. To develop and move forward. Poland is indeed lucky with its neighbors: next to successful Czechs and prosperous Germans, you really want not to lose face. To prove to them, and to the whole world, that there is still gunpowder in the powder kegs of the ancient Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Ukraine should also look more actively to the West, think about how to repeat Poland's success, adopting all the best that is there.
Zoya ROMAN.
Based on materials from Segodnya.ua