The tax office must determine where and how refugees are to be taxed
“Since refugees do not know how yet long they will stay in Poland, it would make sense to suspend or abolish the obligation to collect tax with or without limiting the amount of income at least until the end of 2022”
– proposes Anna Misiak, tax advisor and partner with MDDP, with respect to the tax on jobs performed by non-residents. She says this is a good timing to set up tax incentives for war immigrants to stay in Poland for longer. This would turn them into ‘permanent’ tax residents and clarify doubts as to where they should settle income tax.
“The provisions of the PIT Act, in force from 1 January 2022, can be appropriately modified to encourage people to settle in Poland”
– suggested the expert. She means the Polish Deal-introduced regulations exempting from tax any income up to PLN 85,528 per year for four years. The solution is available to EU citizens, holders of the Pole’s Card and citizens of several other countries.
“Unfortunately, Ukraine is not listed in the Act. Given the circumstances, it would be natural to extend the relief also to Ukrainian citizens. It may turn out that at least some of them want to remain outside their homeland. They would see the relief as an additional incentive to choose Poland as their place of permanent residence”
– suggests Anna Misiak. She adds that this would allow to exclude from taxation income under employment contracts, mandate contracts and even business activity.