Business Taxes in Poland in 2026: What Changed and Where Companies Overpay

KSeF: a change to processes, not rates

Since 1 February 2026, all VAT taxpayers in Poland have had to receive invoices through the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF), and the largest companies (with 2024 sales above PLN 200 million) have also had to issue them there. From 1 April 2026 the obligation to issue invoices in KSeF extended to all other businesses. The smallest taxpayers, whose invoices do not exceed PLN 10,000 gross a month, are exempt until the end of the year, but lose the exemption in the month they cross that threshold.

The Ministry of Finance has announced that there will be no penalties for KSeF errors in 2026. It's easy to read that as a signal to wait. In practice, most problems don't concern issuing invoices but receiving them: who in the company has access to the system, how a cost invoice reaches the person who approves it, and how it's matched to the order and the payment. If someone today downloads invoices from KSeF by hand and emails them to the department that approves them, that process will start costing money in 2027, when penalties apply and invoice volumes grow.

Form of taxation: a decision worth recalculating every year

Income tax rates did not change in 2026: the progressive scale is 12% up to PLN 120,000 of income and 32% above it, with a PLN 30,000 tax-free allowance; the flat tax is 19%; the lump-sum tax on recorded revenue ranges from 2% to 17%; and companies pay 9% CIT (small taxpayers) or 19%. What did change is the health contribution, and it often decides which form is cheaper. Since February 2026 the minimum monthly contribution under the progressive scale and the flat tax has been PLN 432.54, because its base is once again the full minimum wage (PLN 4,806) rather than 75% of it, as in 2025.

The most common mistake is choosing a form of taxation once, when the business is set up, and never revisiting it. As income grows, the cost structure changes or the first employees are hired, the calculation can flip. The lump-sum tax stops paying off when costs are high. The flat tax loses its edge over the progressive scale at lower incomes and rules out filing jointly with a spouse. And a company under Estonian CIT only makes sense if profits genuinely stay in the business.

The form of taxation for a given year is changed by the 20th of the month following the month of the first revenue in that year, which in most cases means by 20 February. That's why the calculation for 2027 is worth doing now, on three quarters of data, rather than in a rush in February.

Draft changes for 2027: what to watch

In August 2026 the government put a draft amendment to the income tax acts out for consultation. Among other things, it proposes a new middle bracket in the progressive scale (12% up to PLN 130,000, 24% from PLN 130,000 to 150,000 and 32% above that), cutting the revenue limit for the lump-sum tax from EUR 2 million to EUR 250,000, and a 22% CIT rate for the largest companies, with revenue above EUR 50 million. A separate draft would extend the robotics relief by ten years and abolish the expansion relief.

These are drafts, not law, and their final shape may still change. They're still worth factoring into planning. A business on the lump-sum tax with revenue of around PLN 1–2 million should already work out what its taxes would look like under the flat tax or as a company, and a business planning to expand abroad in 2027 should check whether it pays to bring some of that spending forward.

VAT and cash flow: a neutral tax that still costs money

On paper VAT is not a cost to the business, but in practice it weighs on liquidity. Output VAT has to be paid whether or not the customer has settled the invoice. With payment terms of 60 or 90 days, the company is effectively lending its own money to the state for two or three months. Then there's split payment: for invoices above PLN 15,000 gross for goods and services listed in Annex 15 to the VAT Act, part of the incoming money lands in a VAT account that can't be used freely.

Three things are worth checking: whether the company uses bad debt relief for invoices its customers don't pay, whether it applies to release funds from the VAT account when the balance builds up, and whether customer payment terms are aligned with supplier payment terms. Smaller businesses should also note that since 2026 the small business VAT exemption threshold has been PLN 240,000, up from PLN 200,000.

Company cars: new limits from 2026

Since 1 January 2026, the cap on tax-deductible spending on a passenger car has depended on its CO2 emissions. For cars emitting at least 50 g CO2/km (in practice combustion cars and most conventional hybrids) it is PLN 100,000; for cars below that threshold (mainly plug-in hybrids) PLN 150,000; and for electric and hydrogen cars PLN 225,000. Previously the general limit was PLN 150,000.

For purchased cars, the new limits apply to vehicles added to the fixed asset register from 2026. Leasing is different: the Ministry of Finance has confirmed that the new limits cover all instalments paid from 1 January 2026, including under contracts signed earlier. A company that leased a PLN 150,000 combustion car in 2024 can now deduct a smaller share of each instalment. Across a fleet of a dozen or so cars, the difference in tax is noticeable.

Where companies most often overpay

• A form of taxation nobody recalculated: the business still uses the form chosen at registration, even though its income and costs have changed several times since.

• Unused reliefs: the R&D relief, IP Box (5% tax on income from qualifying intellectual property), the robotics relief or the prototype relief. The most common obstacle isn't eligibility but the lack of cost records kept from the start of the year.

• Costs without documents: expenses that never reach the books because the invoice went to a private address or nobody passed it on.

• Frozen cash: money sitting in the VAT account, VAT not recovered on bad debts, overpayments the company never claimed back.

• A fleet nobody reviewed: cars and leases whose tax treatment changed in 2026, without anyone checking whether the current financing model still makes sense.

What to do before the end of 2026

1. Calculate your 2027 tax and contribution burden under at least two forms of taxation, taking the proposed changes into account.

2. Test the full journey of a cost invoice in KSeF: from receipt through approval to payment and booking. Penalties for errors apply from 2027.

3. If you run a sole proprietorship registered in CEIDG before 2025, check that it has an electronic delivery address (e-Doręczenia). The deadline is 1 October 2026.

4. Review your fleet and lease contracts against the new limits.

5. Decide whether the company will claim R&D reliefs next year, and keep separate cost records for them from January.

In taxes, most money isn't lost through mistakes in returns, but through decisions nobody made in time.

This article is for information only and reflects Polish law as of September 2026. It is not a substitute for advice from a tax advisor: before changing your form of taxation or claiming a relief, work through your company's specific situation with your accountant.