Your JDG's annual tax return in Poland: PIT-36, PIT-36L or PIT-28

A sole trader in Poland (a JDG, jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza) files one annual tax return (zeznanie roczne) for each year. The form depends on how your business is taxed: PIT-36 on the tax scale, PIT-36L on the 19% flat tax, PIT-28 on ryczałt (a lump-sum tax on revenue). You file between 15 February and 30 April of the following year, so the return for 2026 is due by 30 April 2027.

On the tax scale and the flat tax, you also pay any tax still owed by that day.

Which form goes with which tax option

You do not choose the return. You chose your tax form earlier (see which tax form to choose), and the return follows from it.

Some attachments are only for special cases. Both of these go with PIT-36 or PIT-36L:

• PIT/ZG for income from abroad;
• PIT/IP for IP Box, the 5% rate on income from your own intellectual property.

High earners also file a separate declaration, DSF-1, for the solidarity levy: 4% on income above 1,000,000 PLN a year, also due by 30 April.

On the flat tax, PIT-36L holds only the business. If you also had a salary, that goes on a separate return (usually PIT-37), filed in the same window.

Which tax office

You send the return to the tax office for your home address on the day you file. If you stopped living in Poland before filing, it goes to the office for your last Polish address. People who are not Polish tax residents at all file with the tax office for foreign persons.

The deadline: 15 February to 30 April

A return sent before 15 February counts as filed on 15 February, so filing early does no harm. If 30 April falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day. For 2026 this does not matter: 30 April 2027 is a Friday.

You pay what you owe to your personal tax micro-account (mikrorachunek podatkowy), the same account you use for advances. See the tax micro-account explained.

Watch out: 30 April is also the deadline for sending your tax books to the tax office as electronic files (JPK, jednolity plik kontrolny). If you file VAT monthly (JPK_V7M), your first JPK_PKPIR, JPK_EWP and JPK_ST files are for 2026 and due by 30 April 2027. Quarterly VAT filers and VAT-exempt sole traders start with the files for 2027, due by 2 May 2028.

All the monthly and yearly dates are in tax and ZUS deadlines for 2026.

What goes into the return

The return sums up your books; it is not new work. You take the year’s totals from your records and add a few deductions. On the scale and flat tax, the record is the KPiR (podatkowa księga przychodów i rozchodów, the book of revenue and expenses). On ryczałt, it is the revenue register (ewidencja przychodów).

1. Income or revenue. On the scale and flat tax: revenue minus costs, which gives income (or a loss). On ryczałt: revenue only, split by rate, because costs are not deducted.
2. Social contributions you paid to ZUS (the Social Insurance Institution) for yourself in the year: pension, disability, sickness and accident. You deduct them on all three forms.
3. The health contribution. This is where the forms differ most (see the table below).
4. Reliefs, if your form allows them.
5. Advances you paid during the year. On the scale and flat tax, the difference is what you pay by 30 April, or what the office refunds.
6. How you paid advances, if it was quarterly or by the simplified method. You state it in the return; you do not tell anyone in advance.

On ryczałt it works differently. Each month’s (or quarter’s) payment is already the tax, with December’s due by 20 January. The return should match what you paid. If it shows a shortfall, pay it at once.

The health contribution also has its own yearly settlement, but that happens at ZUS, not in the tax return: in the April ZUS DRA (the monthly ZUS declaration), by 20 May. See the health contribution explained.

Reliefs by tax form

• Tax scale: the widest choice, including the child relief (ulga na dzieci) and the tax-free amount built into the scale (3,600 PLN off the tax).
• Ryczałt: the internet relief (up to 760 PLN a year), rehabilitation expenses, donations and the thermomodernisation relief (for making a house energy-efficient), but no child relief.
• Flat tax: no tax-free amount and no child relief. You can still deduct IKZE payments (a private retirement savings account), the thermomodernisation relief and donations for vocational training.

Giving 1.5% to a charity

On any of the three returns you can give up to 1.5% of your tax to a public-benefit organisation (organizacja pożytku publicznego). You enter its KRS number (its number in the National Court Register) in the return. It only works if:

• the return is filed on time, or corrected within one month of the deadline; and
• the tax is paid in full within two months of the deadline.

For foreigners: if you are a Polish tax resident, you use the same forms as a Pole. You are a resident if your centre of personal or economic interests is in Poland, or you spend more than 183 days here in the tax year. Residents declare their worldwide income; on PIT-36 or PIT-36L, income from abroad goes on the PIT/ZG attachment.

Does Twój e-PIT work for a JDG?

Yes. Twój e-PIT is the free service inside e-Urząd Skarbowy, the online tax office (urzadskarbowy.gov.pl). podatki.gov.pl lists PIT-36, PIT-36L and PIT-28 among its forms and says it is meant for people with business income as well as employees.

You can log in three ways:

• with a gov.pl login: the mObywatel app, an e-ID card, online banking or Profil Zaufany (the free government login);
• with your tax data: PESEL (personal ID number) or NIP (tax ID), date of birth and the income figures the page asks for;
• through the e-US mobile app.

It prepares a return with the data the tax office already has. Your business totals come from your own books, so check every pre-filled figure and send the return yourself before the deadline. You can also file with accounting software, or on paper at the tax office.

If an accountant files for you, they usually do it with a UPL-1, a free authorisation to sign your returns electronically. For the trade-offs, see do you need an accountant.

Can you file jointly with a spouse?

Only on the tax scale, with PIT-36. All of these must be true:

• you were married and in joint marital property for the whole year (or from the wedding to 31 December);
• you both ask for joint filing in the return;
• neither spouse used the flat tax or ryczałt for business that year (ryczałt on private rental is the one exception).

A spouse who lives in another EU or EEA country or in Switzerland can still file jointly. At least 75% of the couple’s total revenue must be taxed in Poland, and you need a certificate of residence. A spouse who is tax resident outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, for example in Ukraine, rules out joint filing.

How to correct a mistake

Send a corrected return (korekta): the same form again, marked as a correction, with the right figures. Pay any extra tax straight away, with late-payment interest.

• You cannot correct the part of a year that is under a tax audit or tax proceedings while it lasts.
• From 1 October 2026, a correction that shows an overpayment above 10,000 PLN must come with a written explanation of why you are correcting.

Tip: a valid correction also protects you from a fine for the original mistake, as long as any tax it adds is paid at once and no fiscal penal investigation had started before you sent it.

What if you missed 30 April?

File as soon as you can and pay the tax, plus late-payment interest (odsetki za zwłokę) from the day after the deadline. Filing late is a petty fiscal offence (wykroczenie skarbowe) in itself, punishable by a fine.

To avoid the fine, also send czynny żal, a voluntary disclosure to the tax office. It is a short letter that says which return was late, for which year, and why. You can send it through your e-Urząd Skarbowy account, in writing, or say it in person at the office. It has no effect if the office has already documented the offence or started checking you.

How interest is worked out, and what to write in czynny żal, is in paid ZUS or tax late?.

What to do next

1. In January, close the year’s books: the last advance, depreciation, and the list of reliefs you can claim.
2. Gather the numbers: revenue and costs (or revenue by rate), the social and health contributions you actually paid, and the advances you sent to the micro-account. Komplet, our free Mac app, reads PDF bank statements from any bank and groups the tax and ZUS transfers on one Taxes screen, which makes the last two easy to check.
3. From 15 February, log in to Twój e-PIT, pick your form, check the pre-filled data and add the business figures.
4. Choose a charity for the 1.5% if you want to.
5. Send the return for 2026 by 30 April 2027. On the scale or flat tax, pay any balance by the same day.
6. By 20 May, file the April ZUS DRA with the yearly health settlement.