While the final Brexit agreement with the EU is still ahead, the outcome of the negotiations is not at all certain. So if you are worried about what will happen to your business after Brexit, do not hesitate to incorporate a company in Poland!
 
There are many advantages to opening a business in Poland. Primarily, it grants entrepreneurs ongoing access to the EU market. Moreover, with their European identification number, the EU VAT number, companies can apply intracommunity VAT rates to their transactions with their EU partners. Keep in mind that the intra-community sales of goods and services is – as a rule – subject to a preferential tax rate, which is a zero tax on goods and services.

In practice, entrepreneurs who sell their goods to other EU Member States apply zero VAT rates to their sales, and at the same time retain their right to deduct VAT from their purchases related to the goods concerned. Export of goods from an EU Member State to another EU Member State that involves activities subject to tax is considered to be an intra-community supply of goods.
 
Why Poland? Being the 9th largest European economy (and exceeding Belgium, Austria and Ireland), Poland is a perfect location for your business. The cost of incorporating a company and its annual operating cost starts from just a few hundred pounds, and an EU-VAT number can be obtained within a week of application. In addition, Poland has a favourable double taxation convention with the UK, and boasts one of the world’s most secure banking systems.
 
You do not have to travel to incorporate a company in Poland – just use the assistance of our experienced lawyers. Dowson Holdings Ltd, a counselling company, specialises in incorporating companies in England and in Poland, and thanks to our extensive expertise gained both in Poland and in the United Kingdom, we can guarantee top quality service and thorough market knowledge.
 

On that fateful day, she drove her 11-year-old daughter to school as usual, in a black Mercedes. However, she did not come back to take her daughter home. Renata Antczak, 49, from Poland, disappeared on 25 April and her whereabouts is since unknown.

British police are carrying out a nation-wide search. There has been some information that she in fact did not suddenly return to Poland. What happened then? Suspicion and speculations abound. Some light has been shed on the case since the husband of the missing woman, Majid Mustafa from Syria, and his accomplice Robert Lipinski, have been arrested. Both men have already faced trial, charged not with murder but with what is called conspiracy to administer a noxious substance. They will remain in custody until sentencing.

However, Renata Antczak is still missing. It is clear that on that tragic 25 April she drove her 11-year-old daughter to school, came back home and left around 1 p.m. She has not been heard from since. The husband claims that his wife asked him for a divorce three weeks prior to her disappearance and that she would often fly over to Poland. According to him, she joined a cult over there. That is what he told one of the British newspapers. “I was genuinely surprised by her attitude, there was nothing wrong, as I see it, happening in our marriage. Then, all of a sudden, she asked for a divorce. I told her that divorce is a serious matter and I asked what was making her think about it, what could the reason for our breakup be. She told me that she wanted a divorce because she wanted to be independent. That’s what she said. I think she has joined a cult. I don’t know what kind of group it is, but in my opinion she met some suspicious people during one of her trips to Poland”, adds her husband. The older daughter of the two, Magda, 20, says that after her mother went missing, the whole situation, especially not having any contact with her, has left the family terrified. “We love you, Mummy! If you are in the UK, let us know, come back to us when you are ready. We will forgive you for everything and you will start over again. Please, contact us!” This is the dramatic appeal which Magda addressed to her mother.
 

Arrest and search

Meanwhile, the police state that so-called “new information” led to the arrest of the two aforementioned men, both suspects in the case. Several properties in Hull have been searched as well. Investigators have searched Antczak’s house for any traces, many items have been taken to the laboratory and her Mercedes has been secured. Bystanders who watched Majid being taken away in the police car point out that he was not handcuffed. Both daughters of the couple and even their dog were taken to the police station. A house in Emerald Grove, in west Hull, has been searched, as well as Genesis Dental Care in Bransholme, where Majid has worked as a dentist since 2014, investigators say. However, police have remained tight-lipped since the two suspects were arrested and the searches carried out, which only adds to the rumours. People are wondering: Did the husband poison his wife? Where is her body? She is still considered missing. One of the policemen in charge of the investigation, Phil Ward, says that some houses in the vicinity of Antczak’s house have also been searched. It may suggest that police have been looking for her body near to her house. However, according to off-the-record information, the main investigation activities are concentrated on Antczak’s house. The activities of other investigation teams depend on the results of specialised lab tests of the traces and items secured at the many properties during the search. However, the missing woman’s friends cannot deny that they fear the worst. That can only mean one thing: the woman has been murdered and now the police are facing the challenge of finding her body. This is why we are appealing to anyone and everyone with any information regarding the case to come forward.

Husband’s story

Meanwhile, Majid has told reporters that Renata must have been planning her escape for some time, considering that she threw a birthday party for her younger daughter three weeks before her 11th birthday. “Why did she do that?”, asks Majid. Probably because she was planning to escape. There are many questions in this mysterious case, and very few answers. Majid also says that Renata told him about divorce as early as March. She also said she wanted to take their daughters with her to Poland, to which he strongly objected. In his opinion, she had been undertaking training courses, as she had assured him, to became a homoeopathic therapist. Now Majid is sure it was then that his wife had been brainwashed. Who were those people? Why did they do it? He has no answers for these questions. “For one thing, at some point I noticed she had started wearing different jewellery, gold necklaces, and she told me it gets rid of bad energy. I also know she had been in contact with some strange Polish folk, and there were candles burning at our house for a long time”, adds Majid. This is not all: according to Majid, there were many notes left at their house by Renata. They were about a desire to feel free, freeing herself from relationships, freeing herself from everything. “One sentence got stuck in my head. It read, ‘I have no obligations towards anyone.’” This is what made Majid believe Renata ended up being involved with a cult during her stay in Poland.
 

She was absolutely normal

According to Humberside police, there is no information about any abnormalities concerning Renata’s state of mind prior to her disappearance. Those who knew her say she was an absolutely normal person. It is clear that Renata did not contact her mother in Lodz, Poland, and Polish police have no information about her coming to Poland recently.

Stanislawa Antczak, Renata’s mother, is sure her daughter would not abandon her children. She admits, however, that Renata did have trouble finding herself, and she could not decide whether to live in the UK or Poland. She intended to return to Poland when her younger daughter graduated from school, Stanislawa adds. A Humberside police spokesperson says that Majid Mustafa explained his theory to them and it is worth taking into consideration. “Although as of today we do not have any evidence proving her escape to Poland”, he adds.

The spokesperson confirms, however, that there has been an unconfirmed report from someone who claims to have seen the missing woman in Poland. Phil Ward says that according to current investigations, Renata did not leave UK. He adds that the evidence collected so far does not prove her return to Poland and police are asking for help in the search for Renata Antczak.
 

Affair is a sham

Another theory is that Antczak had an affair with an unknown man. Her friends claim that this is groundless and it is just people being sensational. Renata has been in a committed relationship for two decades, and even if it was not all a bed of roses lately, her friends reject the affair theory. However, it seems the police have to take it into consideration as well. Even Majid says that the whole family still love Renata and cannot wait to see her again. “If she doesn’t want to be with me, it’s her choice,” says the husband.

Police searched their house but did not find any signs of domestic violence. Renata Antczak graduated from law school in Lodz, Poland. She had worked at the Konstantynow Lodzki City Council, then she worked in Lodz. Renata emigrated to the UK many years ago, together with her husband, who is a dentist. She was well known among the Polish community in Hull. She had a legal education and willingly shared her knowledge with her fellow countrymen to help them. She has lived in Kingswood with two daughters, a 20-year-old university student and an 11-year-old who attends school in East Yorks, Hull.

Renata recently told her friends that she was thinking about starting her own business. For quite a long time she commuted back and forth between Poland and the UK. On that tragic day she was wearing dark trousers (navy-blue or black) and a purple T-shirt. It is not clear whether or not she was wearing a coat. On 25 April she drove her daughter to Broadacre Primary School in a black Mercedes.

She has not been seen since. All of her friends and acquaintances describe her as even-tempered and she has not been involved in any shady businesses nor had any enemies. She is considered to be a well-mannered, intelligent and well-educated woman, also beautiful and classy. There have been some unconfirmed reports of someone seeing her in Poland. Posters with her photo and description in both English and Polish have been placed all around Hull, but to no avail so far.
 
Marek Piotrowski

Poland's President Andrzej Duda has signed into law controversial changes to education, while opponents of the reform have announced protests and a possible referendum.

Under the new law, as of 1 September, students will attend eight years of primary school and four years of high-school or five years of vocational school. There will be no further enrollments to middle schools, which will be phased out.

This will replace a system of six-year primary school, three-year middle school and three-year high school.

“After many consultations, discussions and considering many standpoints for and against, I decided to sign the education reform,” Duda said, adding that the changes are “necessary” and should be implemented as quickly as possible.

However, the Polish Teacher's Association said that it is "disappointed” by Duda's decision, adding that the president had earlier sympathised with their concerns over the fast pace at which the reform was drawn up.

The association, which has already organized a number of strikes against the changes, has announced that it will conduct further protests and try to initiate a referendum on the issue.

Last year, thousands of teachers and parents took to the streets in protest amid concerns that a new curriculum had not been set and fears that the reform could see some 37,000 teachers lose their jobs.

However, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło said on Monday that the reform could see some 5,000 new teaching jobs created. She has in the past promised that no teachers would be out of work because of the changes.

Poland has a good chance of being chosen as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski has said in New York.

He was speaking after meeting the new UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Monday.
Waszczykowski said that his “short, less than two-day visit to New York is dedicated above all to our efforts to… gain a non-permanent place on the Security Council in 2018-19.”

He added: “It was for this purpose that I met the new, recently chosen [Secretary General] Antonio Guterres.”
Waszczykowski said he would also meet several dozen ambassadors from various countries to argue Poland’s case.

The UN Security Council consists of five veto-wielding permanent members (China, France, Russia, the UK and US), and 10 non-permanent members elected by the organisation’s General Assembly for a term of two years.
One non-permanent place goes to a country from Eastern Europe.

Poland has been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic efforts in recent months to seek support for its efforts to be chosen as a non-permanent member.
A vote on accepting new, non-permanent members takes place in June.