Rental income tax in Poland 2026: ryczałt 8.5% and 12.5%, deadlines, PIT-28

Rental income tax in Poland in 2026 is a flat-rate tax (ryczałt): 8.5% of annual revenue up to 100,000 zł and 12.5% on anything above that. Since 1 January 2023 this is the only permitted regime for private rental (najem prywatny). The PIT scale — 12%/32% when it was repealed, and still shown as 18%/32% in older guides — no longer applies to private landlords: the provision that allowed general rules to be chosen (art. 9a ust. 6 of the PIT Act) was repealed by the act of 29 October 2021 (Dz. U. 2021 poz. 2105, the “Polski Ład” package) with effect from 2023. If a page shows 12%/32% or 18%/32% for private rental, it is out of date.

Tax is charged on revenue, not profit: you multiply the rent by the rate and deduct nothing. The calculator above shows the annual and monthly figure for your rent; below is the rest — what counts as revenue, how and when to pay, when there is no tax at all, and what changes if you live outside Poland.

Disclaimer: this is general information and not tax or legal advice. The law is described as at August 2026. For a specific settlement, verify the rules as at the date the revenue arose or consult a Polish tax adviser (doradca podatkowy).

How much you pay the tax office

Legal basis: art. 12 ust. 1 pkt 4 lit. a of the Act of 20 November 1998 on the flat-rate income tax on certain revenues of individuals (consolidated text Dz. U. 2025 poz. 843).

Three points that are routinely missed:

• The threshold belongs to the taxpayer, not the flat. Three flats at 3,000 zł each are one revenue stream of 108,000 zł, and the 8,000 zł excess is taxed at 12.5%.
• There is no tax-free allowance. The 30,000 zł allowance belongs to the PIT scale, which private rental no longer uses.
• The spousal threshold is not automatic. It requires shared marital property (wspólność majątkowa) and a written declaration that one spouse taxes the whole revenue (art. 12 ust. 13). Without it, revenue is split in half and each spouse has their own 100,000 zł threshold.

The deadline for that declaration. The act sets a hard date: by the 20th day of the month following the month in which the first rental revenue of the year was received, or by the end of the tax year if the first revenue only arrived in December (art. 12 ust. 7). For a tenancy running from January that means 20 February in practice. The good news: the choice carries over to later years and need not be repeated — it stands until the spouses notify the head of the tax office of their withdrawal within the same deadline (art. 12 ust. 8a). One spouse may sign: the signature counts as authorisation from the other, under criminal liability for false statements (art. 12 ust. 8c). A late declaration has no retroactive effect — for that year the revenue is split in half, with two 100,000 zł thresholds.

A worked example on a typical Kraków flat: rent of 3,000 zł for 12 months is 36,000 zł of revenue and 3,060 zł of tax a year — 255 zł a month. At 10,000 zł a month, revenue is 120,000 zł and tax is 8,500 + 2,500 = 11,000 zł; the same couple with a declaration pays 10,200 zł, because the whole amount fits inside the doubled threshold.

What counts as revenue

Hence the cheapest optimisation left under ryczałt: split the rent from service charges and utilities in the lease and state explicitly that the tenant bears them. Polish tax authorities consistently confirm that charges structured this way are not the landlord’s revenue (e.g. individual ruling of the Director of the National Revenue Information of 11 June 2025, ref. 0112-KDIL2-2.4011.346.2025.2.MM). If the lease says “3,500 zł including everything”, you pay tax on all 3,500 zł.

What you cannot deduct

Ryczałt is charged without reducing revenue by the cost of earning it. That rules out everything the pre-2023 PIT scale allowed:

• depreciation of the flat — unavailable to everyone since 1 January 2023, business rental included (art. 22c pkt 2 of the PIT Act);
• mortgage interest;
• renovation, fit-out, furniture and appliances;
• building community charges and utilities you pay yourself;
• agent commission, property management, insurance, real-estate tax.

Two consequences for an investor. A year with a major renovation is brutal in tax terms — the spend does not reduce the tax by a single złoty, so finish the work before the tenancy starts. And your real return is only visible after tax: run the numbers in the rental yield calculator, and the one-off purchase costs in the property purchase costs calculator.

A separate note: if you rent through a registered business rather than privately, you may choose between the scale, the 19% flat tax and ryczałt, and under the first two you deduct costs normally — except depreciation of residential units, which nobody may claim. The line between private rental and business activity turns on scale, organisation and continuity; with several short-let units it is worth checking with an adviser.

How to pay rental income tax in Poland

Ryczałt is self-assessed: no demand, no decision, no reminder.

1. Generate your tax micro-account (mikrorachunek podatkowy) on podatki.gov.pl using your PESEL or, if you do not have one, your NIP. It is individual, permanent and free.
2. Select form symbol PPE in the transfer — this is the flat-rate tax on recorded revenue. The annual balance from the return is paid under the PIT-28 symbol.
3. State the period (month or quarter); otherwise the office books the payment against the oldest arrears.
4. Pay by the 20th day of the month following the month the revenue was received. March rent → paid by 20 April.

Quarterly settlement is available to landlords starting out and to those whose rental revenue in the previous year did not exceed the equivalent of 200,000 euro (art. 21 ust. 1b) — in practice, almost every private landlord. The deadline is then the 20th day of the month after the quarter, and for Q4 20 January of the following year. No separate mid-year notification is needed: you report the choice in the PIT-28 return for that year.

When to file PIT-28

Between 15 February and 30 April of the following year; 30 April is also the deadline for paying any balance. A return sent before 15 February is treated as filed on 15 February.

Points worth knowing: you file PIT-28 even if the full ryczałt was already paid monthly; ryczałt is never settled jointly with a spouse, even when you use the doubled threshold; and the Twój e-PIT service will not pre-fill private rental revenue for you. A missed deadline is fixed by filing as soon as possible with a czynny żal letter and paying the arrears with interest.

When there is no tax

There is no tax only where there is no revenue — Polish law has no “up to X złoty tax free” rule for rentals:

• an empty flat or a non-paying tenant — no revenue arose;
• the deposit, until you keep it;
• service charges and utilities properly shifted onto the tenant in the lease;
• free-of-charge lending (użyczenie) — no revenue for the owner; for the user, income from free use is exempt if they belong to tax group I or II. The arrangement must be genuinely free: charging a “cost reimbursement” above the actual bills will be treated as rental.

What is not on that list: a tax-free amount, a start-up relief, an exemption for pensioners or for owning just one flat. Each of those is an internet myth.

And VAT? Renting residential property for residential purposes is exempt from VAT (art. 43 ust. 1 pkt 36 of the VAT Act), so an ordinary long-term landlord never deals with VAT. Short-term letting does not fall under that exemption.

Najem okazjonalny — the same tax

A common misconception: najem okazjonalny is taxed exactly the same way, at 8.5%/12.5%. The difference is civil, not fiscal: a notarial statement in which the tenant submits to enforcement, plus a named alternative address, gives the owner a genuinely faster eviction route.

The one tax-office duty attached to it: the owner must notify the head of the tax office that the lease has been concluded within 14 days of the tenancy starting (art. 19b ust. 1 of the Act of 21 June 2001 on the protection of tenants’ rights). The clock runs from the start of the tenancy, not from signing, and the deadline cannot be restored — miss it and the lease loses its okazjonalny status together with the simplified eviction, although the lease itself remains valid. None of this changes the tax regime. A ready-to-fill template is available here: umowa najmu okazjonalnego template (.docx, Polish).

If you are a non-resident

This covers most of our clients and is barely addressed in Polish-language guides.

The rule is simple: what matters is where the property is. An individual with no place of residence in Poland has a limited tax obligation here — Polish tax only on income earned in Poland (art. 3 ust. 2a of the PIT Act) — and the catalogue of such income covers income from property located in Poland and rights to it, including from letting it (art. 3 ust. 2b pkt 4). A non-resident letting a flat in Kraków therefore settles in Poland on the same terms as a Pole: ryczałt at 8.5%/12.5%, payment by the 20th, PIT-28 by 30 April.

Double taxation treaties do not change this — they confirm it. In every Polish treaty modelled on the OECD Model Convention, income from immovable property is taxed in the state where the property is situated (art. 6). Your country of residence then applies the relief method set out in that particular treaty — exemption with progression, or a credit for the Polish tax. You will not pay twice, but you will always pay in Poland.

A checklist for owners living abroad:

1. The micro-account is generated from a PESEL, or from a NIP if you have none (individuals without a business apply for a NIP on form NIP-7).
2. The competent tax office for a non-resident is set by a separate rule: § 5 of the Finance Minister’s regulation on the jurisdiction of tax authorities (consolidated text Dz. U. 2026 poz. 152) designates one office per voivodeship — for Małopolskie it is the Head of the Kraków-Śródmieście Tax Office. Where tax is paid without a withholding agent, jurisdiction follows the taxpayer’s place of stay and, if that cannot be established, the place where the income-generating activity occurs — i.e. where the flat is (§ 5 ust. 2 pkt 2 lit. b and c). Own property in more than one voivodeship and it is the Head of the Third Tax Office Warszawa-Śródmieście (§ 5 ust. 3).
3. A certificate of residence is needed not in Poland but for the return you file at home.
4. A letting agent does not take over your tax obligation — even if the agency collects the rent and transfers you a net amount, you remain the taxpayer.
5. If you are still choosing the flat, start with how a foreigner buys an apartment in Poland and the breakdown of taxes and notary fees.

Short-term letting

Airbnb and Booking income let privately formally falls under the same 8.5%/12.5% ryczałt, but at scale — with services, continuity and organisation — the tax office may reclassify it as business activity, which brings the health contribution, different tax regimes and 8% VAT on accommodation services. Kraków adds local restrictions of its own. We cover it separately in the guide to short-term rental in Kraków.

What this means for a landlord in Kraków

1. Model the tax before you buy, not after the first tenant: 8.5% of revenue costs roughly 0.5–0.7 percentage points of gross yield.
2. Split rent from charges in the lease — the cheapest optimisation left.
3. Renovate before the tenancy starts.
4. Set a standing payment for the 20th, or move to quarterly settlement — nobody will remind you.
5. Watch the 100,000 zł threshold if you own more than one flat, and consider the spousal declaration if you hold property jointly — filing it within the art. 12 ust. 7 deadline (by the 20th of the month after the first revenue of the year, usually 20 February).

If you want someone to work through the after-tax return on a specific flat with you, get in touch. In our model the developer pays the commission, so the buyer pays nothing.

Frequently asked questions

When do you not have to pay tax on renting out a flat? When there is no revenue: an empty flat, a non-paying tenant, a deposit you have not kept, charges properly borne by the tenant, or a genuinely free loan of the flat. There is no tax-free allowance under ryczałt.

When is PIT-28 filed for rental income? Between 15 February and 30 April of the following year; 30 April is also the payment deadline for any balance.

How much do you pay the tax office for renting out a flat? 8.5% of revenue up to 100,000 zł and 12.5% above; 200,000 zł for spouses who file the declaration. At 3,000 zł a month, that is 3,060 zł a year.

How do you pay the tax? By transfer to your individual tax micro-account with form symbol PPE and the period stated, by the 20th of the following month. The annual settlement uses the PIT-28 symbol.