G-Man wrote:What are personal and corporate tax rates like in Poland?
PIT brackets are 18% and 32%, however the second one is being paid by only about 1% of the populace. However, the income tax threshold is very low and equals to just 6% of an average monthly pay, therefore it is virtually impossible to be exempt from the tax even for the poorest people.
CIT is 19%, however the real issue is with businesses not receiving full VAT refunds and large costs of employing people legally. An employer is obliged to provide social insurance for every worker as well as pay special taxes for "free healthcare" which both are equal to about 40% of the actual pay. With the populace growing older, the system is getting less and less stable every year. Around 62% of the country's overall budget is already being used to keep the social insurance working. Meanwhile, there are legal loopholes for foreign corporations to avoid taxes at all while winning the competition for customers over local businesses, and that effectively transfers large money from the country abroad.
G-Man wrote:What kind of multiculturalism policies did your government turn its back on?
Basically, all of them. We don't get notable immigration from anywhere outside Ukraine/Belarus, both of which are culturally similar countries. Since the start of the Syrian War with ISIS, Poland bent over to German pressure and a few thousand migrants from the Middle East, however they didn't really want to stay here. After receiving asylum, they just all left to richer Western countries with an extensive system of social welfare. The current, conservative government pledged to veto any ideas of possible new migrant quotas for EU countries. The problem solved itself, I guess.
G-Man wrote:In America, the slave trade resulted in a sizable portion of the population being of African descent. Did Poland ever take part in slavery?
Poland was never influential anywhere in the world outside Europe even at its peak powers and did not participate in colonialism. I think the only slavery we ever had was that of prisoners of war from neighboring countries.
G-Man wrote:Are there sizeable minority populations in Poland? If so, what ethnicities and cultures are most prevalent?
We have about 20 officially recognized national and ethnic minorities, I think. None of them are of any real power, though. The largest population group is Germans, which constitute up to 10% of the general populace in some regions of the South. However, country-wise, they make up for less than 1% of all of country's citizens. Poland is actually one of the most homogeneous populations in the world alongside Japan and South Korea.
G-Man wrote:As an ignorant American, I know very little about Poland other than the cuisine is tasty and surnames sometimes defy Western phonetics. What are some things (agriculture, products, etc.) should I recognize Poland as a leader in?
Apples! We produce an export tonnes of apples, being the biggest exporter in Europe and fourth in the world. Poland also produces a lot of furniture, it is said that around 1/3th of all IKEA furniture was constructed here. Other than these two, a lot of household appliances and cars are manufactured and assembled in our country, however it's mostly for European exports.