What can a JDG count as a business cost? Laptop, phone, internet, home office, car

A JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, a sole trader business) can count as a cost anything it spends to earn revenue, or to keep and protect that revenue, unless the law excludes it. A laptop, a phone, internet, software, a coworking desk and part of your home bills usually qualify, as long as you have the right document.

One catch: costs lower your income tax only on the tax scale and the flat tax, not on ryczałt (the lump-sum tax on revenue).

What makes something a business cost?

The Polish term is koszt uzyskania przychodu (cost of earning revenue). The PIT act (the personal income tax law) gives a general rule and a list of exceptions. Two tests matter:

• It helps you earn. The expense is linked to your business: it brings in revenue, or keeps the business running.
• It is documented. You have an invoice, a bill or another valid proof, and you can explain why you bought it.

Things that normally qualify: software subscriptions, a coworking desk, accountant fees, a business phone and internet, a laptop, business travel, training linked to your work, and bank fees.

Things the law excludes, whatever your reason: representation (restaurant meals, food and drinks for clients), your income tax itself, and fines.

For most items the law gives no fixed percentage. If a phone or laptop is clearly needed for your work, it is normally a cost. If you mostly use something privately, book only a share you can justify, or leave it out. Only cars have percentages written into the law (see below).

Does your tax form matter?

Yes, a lot. Your tax form decides whether costs save you any income tax.

On the tax scale and the flat tax, a cost lowers your income, so it lowers the tax.

It usually lowers your health contribution too. On these forms the contribution is a percentage of income (9% on the scale, 4.9% on the flat tax), but never below the minimum: 432.54 PLN a month from February 2026 to January 2027.

On ryczałt you pay a percentage of what you invoice, and costs are not deducted at all. What you can still deduct:

• social contributions paid to ZUS (the Social Insurance Institution);
• 50% of the health contribution paid;
• a few personal reliefs, such as the internet relief (up to 760 PLN a year).

You must still keep purchase proofs and a list of fixed assets. If you are an active VAT payer, your cost invoices still matter, because they let you deduct the VAT on them. See how to choose your tax form and ryczałt rates.

Laptop, phone and other equipment: at once, or over years?

The key number is 10,000 PLN, and it applies to the item’s initial value.

Which initial value counts depends on your VAT status:

• Active VAT payer: the net price. You also deduct the VAT separately.
• VAT-exempt: the gross price, because you cannot recover the VAT.

Example: a laptop costs 9,000 PLN net plus 23% VAT, so 11,070 PLN gross. An active VAT payer books 9,000 PLN at once and deducts 2,070 PLN of VAT. A VAT-exempt sole trader has an 11,070 PLN asset, above the 10,000 PLN line, so it is depreciated at 30% a year (3,321 PLN a year) unless the one-off write-off applies.

The de minimis write-off (jednorazowa amortyzacja, one-off depreciation) is for small taxpayers (previous-year sales up to 8,517,000 PLN including VAT, for 2026) and for businesses in their first year. It covers computers and other equipment, but not passenger cars.

There is also a one-off write-off for brand-new equipment, up to 100,000 PLN a year. Both have conditions, so check with your accountant before you rely on them.

Home office and internet

You cannot depreciate a flat or a house you work from. Residential property has been excluded since 1 January 2022, and since 2023 nobody can depreciate it any more.

What you can book is the business share of your home bills: rent, electricity, heating, water, gas and phone. The proof is an internal note (dowód wewnętrzny) that you write yourself, based on the full bill, showing how you worked out the business part. The law does not set a formula; many people use the office’s share of the floor area. Agree a method with your accountant and use it every month.

Internet is not on the list of bills you can split with an internal note. The simplest proof is an internet invoice issued to your business, with your NIP (tax number) on it. The same goes for a mobile phone plan: a contract in the business’s name gives you a clean invoice every month.

Tip: keep the full utility bill and the internal note together in the same month’s folder. The note alone is not enough if the tax office asks.

A car: 20%, 75% or 100%?

Cars are the one area where the law sets fixed percentages for private use.

The 100% level needs real exclusive business use. An active VAT payer without the mileage log is treated as using the car privately too. If you are VAT-exempt, the law does not ask you for the log, but the exclusive use must still be true.

Depreciation and leasing are also capped by the car’s value. From 1 January 2026 the caps are 225,000 PLN for electric and hydrogen cars, 150,000 PLN for combustion cars under 50 g CO₂/km, and 100,000 PLN at 50 g/km or more. Whether a car registered in 2022–2025 keeps the old 150,000 PLN cap is disputed, so ask your accountant rather than assume.

For VAT, an active VAT payer normally deducts 50% of the VAT on a car used both privately and for business.

Which document do you need?

A cost is only as good as its proof. The document you need depends on what you bought.

A plain till receipt without your NIP is widely treated as not enough on its own, so give your NIP at the checkout. A bank statement proves that you paid a supplier, but it does not replace the supplier’s invoice. More in receipt or invoice and how to convert foreign invoices.

Watch out: a purchase from another business worth more than 15,000 PLN has two extra rules.

• It must be paid from a bank (payment) account, whatever the number of instalments. Paid in cash, it is not a cost.
• If the supplier is an active VAT payer, the transfer must go to an account on the VAT white list (biała lista) on the day you order it. If it does not, file ZAW-NR within 7 days of ordering the transfer. Split payment is exempt from this check.

A bill passed by parliament in September 2026 would drop the white-list condition for costs on invoices issued from 1 January 2027 (the VAT side of the rule stays). As of 24 September 2026 it is not yet signed, so follow the current rule.

Keep every cost document until the end of the fifth year after the year its tax was due. For 2026 costs, that means until 31 December 2032.

What to do next

1. Check your tax form. On ryczałt, costs do not lower your income tax, but keep the proofs anyway.
2. Before you buy equipment, check whether its initial value (net or gross, depending on your VAT status) is above 10,000 PLN.
3. Put business phone and internet contracts in the business’s name, with your NIP.
4. If you work from home, agree with your accountant how to work out the business share, then write an internal note each month.
5. Give your NIP at every till and ask foreign suppliers for an invoice with your business details.
6. File every document into its month as it arrives. Komplet, our free Mac app, reads invoices and receipts, files each one into the right month and pairs it with the payment on your bank statement, so gaps show before your accountant asks. See also how to organise invoices and receipts.