Renting out in Poland: how the flat-rate tax on rental income works

Rent from a flat in Poland that you let outside a registered business has been taxed only with the Polish flat-rate tax on recorded revenue (ryczałt od przychodów ewidencjonowanych) since 1 January 2023. There is no choice of tax method for private rental, so there is no election to file either. The rule is the same whether you live in Poland, the UK, Ireland or Norway. This guide covers the rates with worked examples, the deadlines for advance payments and the PIT-28 return, the rules for married couples, and the point at which renting counts as a business.

Who pays the flat-rate tax and what counts as revenue

Every individual who lets a flat, house, room or garage in Poland outside a business pays the flat-rate tax. You pay it on the rent your tenant paid you in the calendar year. The payment date decides the year, so December's rent that arrives on 3 January is revenue of the new year.

Private landlords don't keep a formal revenue ledger. You only need to know how much rent arrived each month.

Rates of 8.5% and 12.5% and the PLN 100,000 threshold

You pay 8.5% on rental revenue up to PLN 100,000 a year and 12.5% on the part above PLN 100,000. Revenue adds up from January. The higher rate applies only to the amount above the threshold, and everything before it stays at 8.5%.

Example: PLN 3,000 rent a month

Your rent for the year is PLN 36,000, below the threshold. You pay a PLN 255 advance each month (8.5% of PLN 3,000) and PLN 3,060 for the year.

Example: PLN 10,000 rent a month

• From January to October you pay PLN 850 a month (8.5% of PLN 10,000).
• After October your revenue for the year reaches PLN 100,000, so for November and December you pay PLN 1,250 a month (12.5% of PLN 10,000).
• The year comes to PLN 11,000: PLN 8,500 on the first PLN 100,000 and PLN 2,500 on the remaining PLN 20,000.

You live abroad and rent out a flat in Poland

You are a Polish tax resident if your centre of personal or economic interests is in Poland or you spend more than 183 days a year there. If you are not, Poland taxes only income earned in Poland, and that includes rent from property located in Poland. You pay the flat-rate tax on the same terms as a landlord living in Poland: the same rates, the same advances, the same PIT-28 return.

Poland applies these rules together with its double tax treaties. The treaties with the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway or Germany allow the country where the property is located to tax the rental income. How your country of residence then treats that income depends on the treaty and its own law, so take that question to a tax adviser where you live.

Deadlines: advances by the 20th, PIT-28 from 15 February to 30 April

• You pay the advance for each month by the 20th of the following month, and for December by 20 January.
• You can pay quarterly instead: by the 20th of the month after the quarter ends, and for the fourth quarter by 20 January. You state the quarterly method in your PIT-28 return for that year.
• You file the PIT-28 return between 15 February and 30 April of the following year, so for 2026 between 15 February and 30 April 2027. Any balance shown on the return is also due by 30 April.
• When a deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it moves to the next working day.

You pay advances and the balance into your personal tax account, the mikrorachunek podatkowy. You generate its number from your PESEL or NIP in the generator on podatki.gov.pl (in Polish). You file the return online in e-Urząd Skarbowy or through an authorised representative in Poland.

Costs and depreciation don't reduce the tax

The flat-rate tax is charged on revenue with no deduction for costs. Renovation, mortgage interest, insurance, property tax and agent's fees leave the tax unchanged. You can't depreciate the flat either: since 2023 residential flats and buildings in Poland are excluded from depreciation, in a business too.

You can deduct only the items the law lists, such as social security contributions paid in Poland, donations or the thermal-modernisation relief, if you don't already deduct them from other income.

Married couples: PLN 100,000 each or PLN 200,000 for one of you

When the flat belongs to the spouses' joint marital property (the default regime in Poland, wspólność majątkowa), each spouse is taxed on half the revenue with their own PLN 100,000 threshold. You can instead file a statement that one of you pays tax on all of it. That spouse's threshold is then PLN 200,000.

You file the statement with the tax office by the 20th of the month after the month in which the first rent of the year arrived. If the first rent arrives in December, you have until the end of the year. One spouse can sign it for both. It stays in force in later years until you notify the tax office within the same deadline that you are withdrawing it.

With PLN 120,000 of rent a year and the statement filed, one spouse pays PLN 10,200 (8.5% of PLN 120,000). Without it, each spouse pays PLN 5,100 on their PLN 60,000, the same total. A flat that is one spouse's separate property is taxed in full to that spouse, with a PLN 100,000 threshold.

When renting counts as a business

Under Polish law a business (działalność gospodarcza) is an activity for profit carried out in your own name in an organised and continuous way. The law gives no number of flats at which renting becomes a business. The tax office looks at the facts: the scale, how you organise it, extra services for tenants and whether you buy flats specifically to let them.

When the flat is part of your business registered in Poland, the rent is business revenue and you choose one tax method:

• the tax scale: 12% of profit up to PLN 120,000 and 32% above, with a PLN 3,600 tax-reducing amount,
• the linear tax: 19% of profit,
• the flat-rate tax: 8.5% and 12.5%, with a separate PLN 100,000 threshold for business revenue, counted apart from private rental.

On the scale and the linear tax you pay on profit and deduct costs such as mortgage interest and renovation. The flat itself still can't be depreciated. On top of the tax come Polish social security (ZUS) and the health contribution for entrepreneurs. If the facts of your rental leave the answer open, apply for an individual tax ruling (interpretacja indywidualna) from Poland's National Tax Information service (KIS).

How Brokik calculates your advances and prepares the PIT-28 figures

You can use Brokik in English, and it calculates the flat-rate tax for flats in Poland billed in złoty. Revenue is the rent from the payments you record against settlements issued in Brokik, in the month the money arrived, part payments included.

• In your account settings you choose monthly or quarterly advances and switch on email reminders.
• Brokik calculates each advance at 8.5% and 12.5% with the PLN 100,000 threshold added up from January.
• You see the deadline of each advance on your dashboard, moved to the next working day. The reminder arrives six days and one day before the deadline.
• After the transfer you mark the advance as paid. If revenue for that period grows later, Brokik shows the top-up.
• The day after the January advance deadline, Brokik creates the annual PIT-28 summary as a PDF for the previous year and emails you. The summary is in Polish and follows the fields of the return. It lists utilities separately from rent.

You copy the figures into the return in e-Urząd Skarbowy yourself, or pass the PDF to your accountant or representative in Poland, and you make the transfer to the tax office from your own account. Read more about Brokik for landlords on the rental management software page.