Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's deadline for submitting tax declarations has been extended till end of May 2020.
Each year between February and April 30th, all employees who worked in Poland in the previous year, have to submit their annual Personal Income Tax declarations (PIT) to the fiscal authorities. There are various PIT forms marked with different numbers but the most common form is PIT-37 for employees not running their own business.
In order to submit your 2019 tax declaration, first you need the PIT-11 form which your employer has to provide to you before end of February. PIT-11 includes information on paid taxes which you will have to put in your annual tax declaration.
There are 3 main ways of submitting 2019 PIT declaration:
Note:since the PIT forms and the online system are available only in Polish, it would be helpful if a Polish-speaking person could assist you.
1. On-lineviae-PIT - the official government system which makes the process relatively easy because you don’t have to make any calculations by yourself. What is more, your tax information should already be available in this system (based on the information provided by employers) so that you can just verify it and submit the declaration.
However, in order to use the e-PIT system, you need to provide some authorization data:
- your PESEL number * (a personal identification number) or NIP ** (personal tax identification number) and date of birth,
- the amount of income from the previous year - 2018 (from PIT 2018),
- the amount of income for 2019 from PIT-11,
- the amount of 2018 due tax or overpaid tax from PIT 2018.
If you did not work in 2018 and that’s why you are not able to provide the necessary amounts (and you cannot put „0”), you will need a so called „trusted online profile” in order to authorize your data and submit the declaration. The profile can be set up via certain banks (see the list of banks).
Having successfully submitted your PIT, as a proof you should download the confirmation called UPO and keep it among your documents.
2. On-line via e-declaration form (e-deklaracje) which calculates the amounts automatically but you need to provide some amounts from your PIT-11. The declaration can be submitted on-line, again, after providing the above authorization data, however, this time you can put „0” if you did not have any income in 2018.
Having successfully submitted your PIT, as a proof, you should download the confirmation called UPO and keep it among your documents.
3. In paper. In the e-declaration system you can use an interactive pdf form which will calculate the amounts automatically if you provide some numbers from PIT-11. Then, you can print out the filled in PIT, sign and submit it in person to the tax office competent for your residence address. It is highly recommended to print the PIT declaration twice in order to have it stamped by the tax office as a proof of submission.
NOTE: currently tax offices are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
When submitting your tax declaration, you will see any due amounts that you have to pay till end of April. If the declaration shows an excess payment, the tax authorities will pay the money back to you to a bank account provided to them.
What if you fail to submit your PIT declaration
If you unintentionally fail to submityour PIT before the deadline, you can still do it after April but you will have to attach an explanation note stating that it wasn’t intentional and explaining the reason.
However, if you do not submit PIT at all and you don’t pay any due taxes, you will become a deptor in the Polish tax system which might result in you not being able to legalise your stay in Poland (receive the residence permit) and paying a fine.
* PESEL number is issued automatically when registering in the municipality which is obligatory
** NIP number is issued when registering in the tax office, for example for the purpose of requesting a document confirming that you do not owe any tax in Poland, which might be needed for a residence permit