The Tax Law allows the head of the tax office to remove an active VAT taxpayer from the VAT register.  

Until 2017:

Until 2017, the head of the tax office had the right to remove a taxpayer from the VAT register only in a few cases: if the entrepreneur ceased to perform taxed transactions or in the case of the VAT-EU register – if he did not submit a declaration for a period of 6 months. In the case of not filing a declaration and avoiding contact with officials, it can be expected that the head of the tax office will most likely order an inspection. If he can not contact the taxpayer, he will delete it from the VAT register. Starting from 2017, the number of possible situations that allow the head of the tax office to remove a taxpayer from the VAT database has, however, been widened.

In what situations an active VAT taxpayer can be removed from the VAT register and what are the procedures? 

As of 1 January 2017 a taxpayer may be deleted from the VAT register for the following reasons:

• for issuing fictitious invoices not relating to real transactions,
• for participation in tax evasion aimed at obtaining unlawful economic benefits at the expense of the state budget,
• for failure to file a VAT return for 6 consecutive months or failure to file zero VAT returns,
• for not conducting actual business activity despite registration in the National Court Register
• if it is not possible to contact the taxpayer or his legal agent,
• for providing false data in the data registration form,
• if the taxpayer or his legal agent fail to appear before the tax authorities when ordered to do so.

Before a taxpayer is removed from the VAT register, the head of the tax office performs a verification, so the whole process can last up to several months. Importantly, in some cases the tax authorities are not obliged to inform the entrepreneur about the deletion of the taxpayer from the data base and they follow this practice.
As a result, it can happen that a taxpayer performs taxed activities without knowing that he has no right to deduct the input VAT due to his deletion from the register. Therefore, it is a good idea to check the official status from time to time, which can done by entering the relevant NIP number on the Tax Website of the Ministry of Finance.