Original Polish text by Łukasz Antkiewicz, Metro

English translation by Michał Rolecki
 www.gaypoland.pl

WARSAW, October 19, 2006  –  The Polish government is planning to do away with inheritance tax – but only for heterosexual couples.  The proposed bill not only discriminates against gays and lesbians but also any unmarried couples.

Until now, Poles had to pay as much as 20 percent of inheritance tax.

A government bill to be voted in the next session of Polish Parliament will give the families of the deceased a right to a tax relief.  But, according to the bill in its present form, you need to be next of kin of the deceased or his/her married spouse.

This means that the new bill excludes unmarried couples.  Since same-sex marriages are not allowed in Poland, the bill discriminates against gays and lesbians.

According to National Office for Statistics, as many as 2.5 million Poles are living as unmarried couples. One third of this number are homosexual ones.

Marcin, 31-year-old IT specialist and Artur, 28-year-old sales specialist from Warsaw have been in a relationship for 10 years.  They jointly bought a car and a flat.

“Why should we be excluded from the tax relief?  We work as hard as the rest of the society and we pay huge taxes,” They said.

“This is a privilege for families and homosexual couples in Poland are not provided for by the law.  Thus they are not eligible for this specific relief” explained Jacek Kościelniak, an MP from conservative PiS party.

“The bill aims directly at gay and lesbian couples” argued Łukasz Pałucki from Equality Foundation, the major LGBT organisation in Poland.  “It has been merely a couple of weeks since President Kaczyński, during his visit to Brussels and Washingto,n kept on assuring that gay and lesbian people in Poland are not discriminated against and may jointly pay taxes [if the incomes in a couple are significantly different, this results in lower tax, translator's note].  Now it turns out to be rubbish.

Meanwhile the lawyers warn that the bill may be in breach of Polish constitution.

“The bill may be in breach of the constitutional principle of non-discrimination,” said Dr. Anna Młynarska-Sobaczewska from University of Lodz.

If the bill is passed, left-wing parties intend to take the matter to the Constitutional Tribunal.

Gay and lesbian organisations have already asked the opinion of Brussels.

“The European Commission is against any form of discrimination.  Thus, as soon as the law becomes enforceable, the European Union will demand explanations from the Polish government and even to improve the faulty provision of law,” said Józef Pionior, Polish MEP from the SDLP party.