The VAT taxable amount for the supply of goods or services for consideration in Poland is everything which constitutes consideration that you have obtained or will obtain in return for this sale from the purchaser, customer or a third party, including grants, subsidies and other similar forms of payment which directly affect the price of the goods or services you sell.

The taxable amount includes:

• taxes, customs duties, charges and other similar amounts due, excluding VAT itself;
• incidental expenses such as commission, packing, transport and insurance costs charged by you to the purchaser or customer.

The taxable amount does not include:

• price reductions in the form of discounts for early payment;
• price discounts and rebates granted to the purchaser or customer and obtained by that person at the time of sale;
• amounts received from the purchaser or customer as repayment of documented expenditure incurred in the name and on behalf of the purchaser or customer, and entered in your books maintained for VAT purposes in a suspense account.

The taxable amount is reduced by:

• price discounts and rebates granted after the sale;
• the value of the goods and packaging returned;
• the entire payment received before the sale or its part, if the sale did not take place;
• the value of reimbursed grants, subsidies and other similar forms of payment which directly affected the price of the goods or services you sold.

The taxable amount does not include the value of packaging if you supplied the goods in returnable packaging, collecting a deposit for this packaging or providing for such a deposit in the contract for the supply of the goods.

If the purchaser does not return the returnable packing, you increase the taxable amount by the value of this packaging:

• on the date following the date when the packaging was to be returned under the contract, if the purchaser did not return the packaging within the time limit specified in the contract;
• on the 60th day after the date when the packaging was issued, if you did not specify a time limit for returning this packaging.

If you benefit from so-called personal exemption from VAT (threshold-based exemption), you must keep sales records for the date concerned, but not later than before the sale on the following day. You may keep them in paper or electronic form.

If you are registered as an active taxable person for VAT purposes, you must keep sales and purchase records. Records should contain data that make it possible to correctly settle the tax and draw up recapitulative statements, in particular data on:

1. the type of sales and taxable amount, and the amount of output tax, including adjustments for output tax, broken down by tax rate;
2. the amount of input tax by which the amount of output tax is reduced, including input tax adjustments;
3. contractors;
4. proof of sale and purchase.

The purchase and sales records must be kept by electronic means, using computer programs.

The sales and purchase records must be sent to the revenue office by electronic means, in the form of a JPK_VAT (SAF-T Standard Audit File Tax) with tax returns file, on a monthly basis. You must do this by the 25th day of the month following each successive month.

JPK_VAT with tax returns is an electronic document consisting of two parts: a records part and a returns part.

There are two variants of JPK_VAT with tax returns:

• JPK_V7M – for taxable persons settling their taxes on a monthly basis and
• JPK_V7K – for taxable persons settling their taxes on a quarterly basis.

Taxable persons settling their taxes on a quarterly basis must send only the records part for the first 2 months of each quarter. They must do this by the 25th day of the month following each of these months. After the end of a quarter, they must send the records part for the third 3. month of the quarter and the returns part of JPK_VAT for the entire quarter within the deadline for submitting tax returns (i.e. by the 25th day of the month following each successive quarter).

If you sell goods or services to consumers (natural persons who do not run businesses and flat-rate farmers), you must keep sales records using cash registers. You are not required to have a cash register if you sell goods or services only to companies.

You are exempt from recording sales on a cash register if:

• you carry out transactions which are exempt from recording on a cash register due to the type or form of sale; this concerns, inter alia, the sale of:
  • electricity,
  • natural water,
  • waste collection services,
  • postal and courier services, excluding services related to the preparation and supply of ordered goods,
  • telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services,
  • financial and insurance services,
  • rental and management services for own or leased real estate, if the provision of these services was fully documented with an invoice or you receive full payment for a completed transaction through the post office, a bank or a credit union (to your bank account) and the records and proof of payment clearly show which specific transaction the payment concerned,
  • real estate services, if the provision of these services was fully documented with an invoice,
  • certain education services,
  • real estate,
  • dispatched goods (postal and courier services), if you receive full payment for a completed transaction through the post office, a bank or a credit union (to your bank account) and the records and proof of payment clearly show which specific transaction the payment concerned and for whom it was made (details of the purchaser, including the address),
  • services, if you receive full payment for completed services through the post office, a bank or a credit union (to your bank account) and the records and proof of payment clearly show which specific transaction the payment concerned,
  • land leasing services,
  • goods (articles), by means of unmanned vending machines which accept payments and dispense goods,
  • services provided using customer-operated machines, including ticket dispensing machines, also unmanned ones, which accept payments in:
    • coins or bank notes, or
    • another form (non-cash), if the records and proof of transaction clearly show which transaction the payment concerned,
  • fixed assets and depreciable intangible assets, if these transactions were fully documented with an invoice;
• turnover from sales to consumers (natural persons who do not run businesses and flat-rate farmers) does not exceed a specific limit (personal exemption), namely in cases where:
• turnover, i.e. the net value (without the tax amount) of your sales to consumers did not exceed PLN 20 000 in the previous fiscal year, and, if such sales began in the previous fiscal year, turnover did not exceed, in proportion to the duration of these transactions in the previous fiscal year, PLN 20 000,
• sales to consumers begin in the fiscal year concerned and the projected turnover from these sales does not exceed, in proportion to the duration of these transactions in the fiscal year concerned, PLN 20 000.

You cannot be exempt from recording sales on a cash register (with some exceptions) if sales to consumers concern, inter alia:

• the supply of:
  • liquefied gas,
  • certain parts for engines,
  • certain parts and accessories for motor vehicles,
  • radio, television and telecommunications equipment
  • photographic equipment,
  • articles of precious metals or with an admixture of these metals the supply of which cannot benefit from personal exemption from VAT (threshold-based exemption),
  • recorded and unrecorded digital and analogue media,
  • motor fuels,
  • tobacco products, alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of over 1.2% and alcoholic beverages which are a mixture of beer and non-alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content exceeding 0.5%,
  • perfumes and toilet waters;
• the provision of the following services:
  • carriage of persons and their hold baggage by taxis,
  • repair of motor vehicles and mopeds (including tyre repair, fitting, retreading and rebuilding),
  • replacement of tyres or wheels for motor vehicles and mopeds,
  • testing and technical inspection of vehicles,
  • medical and dental practice services,
  • legal services,
  • tax consultancy,
  • food and beverage service activities only:
    • provided by stationary catering establishments, also on a seasonal, basis, and
    • event catering services,hairdressing and beauty treatment services,
    • arts and entertainment services – only in respect of admission to circus performances,
    • entertainment and recreation services – only in respect of admission to amusement parks, theme parks, discotheques and dance halls.

The standard VAT rate is 23%.

The following reduced rates are applicable in Poland:

• 8%,
• 5%,
• 0%.

You may apply the 8% rate to, the supply of the goods and services listed in Annex 3 to the VAT Act and Annex to the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of March 25, 2020 on goods and services for which the tax rate on goods and services is reduced, and the conditions for applying reduced rates (Journal of Laws, items 527, 715, 736, 1487), inter alia:

• certain food products (e.g. sugar, spices, certain processed and preserved food),
• newspapers and periodicals (including e-publications other than publications wholly or predominantly consisting of video content or audible music) – except regional or local periodicals (printed or on disks, tapes and other media) .
• goods and services of a kind normally intended for use in agricultural production (e.g.animals, plants, seeds, fertilizers and plant protection products),
• animal feeding stuffs; veterinary services,
• healthcare products (pharmaceutical products; medical devices; certain disinfectants applied in health protection),
• selected devices for the blind,
• services related to admission to cultural, sports and recreational events (admission to shows, theatres, circuses, amusement parks, concerts, museums, zoos, cinemas etc., admission to sporting events and use of sporting facilities),
• lending in libraries of books and newspapers;
• services of general interest (e.g. supply of water, supply of services provided in connection with street cleaning, refuse collection and waste treatment, other than the supply of such services by public bodies),
• funeral services;
• transport of passengers and their accompanying luggage,
• reception of radio and television broadcasting services (excluding VOD)
• the supply, construction, renovation, modernisation, thermal modernisation or conversion of buildings or parts thereof subject to the social housing programme (single-family houses up to 300 square meters and flats up to 150 square metres),
• maintenance of private dwellings, excluding materials which account for a significant part of the value of the service supplied,
• accommodation provided in hotels and similar establishments,
• food and beverages serving services (excluding the supply of beverages and goods unprocessed by the taxpayer - other than those that are subject to a reduced rate, as well as seafood),
• some labour intensive services (hairdressing services, repair of footwear and leather goods, repair and alteration of clothing and home textiles, bicycle repair).

You may apply the 5% tax rate to the supply of goods listed in Annex 10 of the VAT Act, inter alia:

• basic foods (e.g. bread, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, bakery products, farinaceous products, eggs, fruit and vegetable juices, soups, broths, homogenised and dietetic food) ,
• products for children and hygiene products (food for infants and toddlers, pacifiers, nappies, car seats, sanitary pads and tampons and),
• printed books, books on disks, tapes and other media and e-books (other than publications wholly or predominantly consisting of video content or audible music) as well as regional or local periodicals (printed or on disks, tapes and other media).

You may apply the 0% rate to, inter alia:

• the export of goods,
• the intra-European Union supply of goods,
• the supply of goods under the ‘TAX FREE for tourists’ scheme,
• the supply of goods to free zones or customs warehouses,
• international transport services,
• the supply of vessels used for navigation on the high seas and carrying passengers for reward, or used for the purposes of commercial, industrial or fishing activities, including in particular sea-going cruise ships, sea-going pleasure boats and similar vessels, designed primarily for the carriage of persons; sea-going ferries of all kinds and the supply of parts or equipment for these vessels, if they are not inboard or used to operate the vessels,
• services provided in maritime ports related to the handling of means of maritime transport or aimed at meeting the direct needs of their cargo,
• the supply of means of air transport, replacement parts and onboard equipment for air carriers operating primarily international air services,
• the rental, leasing or chartering of means of air transport and the rental, leasing or chartering of their onboard equipment used by air carriers operating primarily international air services,
• the supply of certain computer hardware to educational establishments,
• the supply of goods or services, for specific purposes and subject to specific conditions, for:
  • EU institutions or authorities set up by the EU established or represented in a Member State other than Poland,
  • international organisations established or represented in a country other than Poland (recognised as such by the country of establishment and by Poland),
  • NATO armed forces established or represented in a Member State other than Poland,
  • diplomatic missions and consular offices established or represented in a Member State other than Poland and members of their staff,
  • US armed forces stationed in Poland.

• donations of goods to fight COVID-19 (i.a. pharmaceutical products; medical devices; certain disinfectants, diagnostic tests and special personal protective equipment - such as face masks, overalls, gloves) to entities involved in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic (primarily hospitals and healthcare centres) and those affected (i.a. nursing homes, shelters for homeless) - for the duration of the state of the epidemic in Poland,
• supply of imported pharmaceutical products financed with funds from public fund collection organized by public benefit organizations intended to conduct therapies that were originally expected to be carried out abroad (which has become impossible due to the travel restrictions during COVID-19 epidemic) - for the duration of the state of the epidemic in Poland.

If you provide taxi operation services, excluding rental of passenger cars with drivers, you may select a flat-rate tax on these services. The tax rate is 4%.

If you are a flat-rate farmer who supplies agricultural product for a taxable person that accounts for this tax, you are entitled to a refund of this tax. The refund rate is 7%.

Regulation of the Minister of Finance of March 25, 2020 on goods and services for which the tax rate on goods and services is reduced, and the conditions for applying reduced rates (Journal of Laws, items 527, 715, 736, 1487).