CDP did it to cut on VAT. There is 23% vat on games and 5% vat on books, so they "invented" gamebook, which is "book + free game!". Also, these "books" are merely 15 pages long, filled mostly with articles about the game.

Sneaky bastards. But people buy this shit.

Smart move. Did they get away with it?

So far, so good.

Polish VAT legislation is so poor that moves like that are pretty common.

Really? Over here, the state always takes such cases to the court. We recently had a case about a similar problem. But for the love of God I can't remember what it was about ...

EDIT:

I REMEMBER!

It was about Poker. If it was gambling (no taxes) or not.

They can't, becuase they know they will loose. There is a rule you should never interpret the law in favour of treasury "non in dubio pro fisco" (or just in dubio pro tributario/libertate). There are plenty of holes in VAT legislation here.

For example, for many years, there was a huge tax deduction on delivery vechicles. But the definition was so stupid, that every car with a this
http://www.poldrut.net.pl/produkty/krata1.jpg
between the back seat and the trunk , was treated like a delivery vechicle. Yes, you guessed it - we had plenty of delivery vechicles back then :P

There are also many traps in the other direction - for example, if you are selling coffee with cream, you're not selling coffe, you are selling "high fat beverage dessert" or something like that, and bam! higher VAT.

Regulations are so unclear, than in most cases, the treasury / state has no chances of winning that, because of the rule "non in dubio pro fisco"
haha, we had a bigger problem :D

Because gambling outside casinos is strictly forbidden in Poland now. But we also had a problem to determine if it was gambling or not. But courts said it was, so it's banned to play poker ANYWHERE outside casinos, if there is ANY kind of prize for the winner included.