Abstract:

International integration and capital concentration made assigning a homogenous national origin to capital groups a very difficult task. The inflow of foreign capital in the form of FDI to Poland became an integral element of the Polish economic reforms commenced in 1989. Three decades of constant presence of foreign investors and methodical increase in employed capital allowed for reducing the shortage in resources (capital), technology and knowledge, but also revealed an entire spectrum of international enterprises’ behaviours characteristic for cultures of their home countries. In practice, two key criteria for a capital group’s national identity can be identified: the country from which the parent company is derived and the top management’s national composition. There is the question of whether the capital group’s national identity affects the implementation of the strategy of minimising the income tax burdening the group’s companies. The study was conducted on the group of the biggest 30 companies registered in Poland, belonging to international capital groups. The study demonstrated that: 

• effective income tax minimisation in companies belonging to international capital groups is not dependent on their national identity identified by the country of origin,
• similarly, there is a related lack of homogeneity in groups of companies identified by their activity’s discipline.