Ryczałt rates in 2026: which percentage applies to your work?

Your ryczałt rate depends on the kind of work you do, not on a choice you make. Most programmers pay 12%, most other services with no special rule pay 8.5%, and the “free professions” such as lawyers and translators working alone pay 17%. The rate is a percentage of what you invoice, and your costs do not count.

Ryczałt (ryczałt od przychodów ewidencjonowanych, the lump-sum tax on recorded revenue) is one of the three income-tax options for a JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, a sole trader business). The rates below are the ones in the ryczałt act for 2026.

The ryczałt rates for 2026

The act describes each activity with PKWiU codes (art. 12). This table simplifies them.

Two things often surprise people:

• “Free profession” has a strict meaning. You must do the work yourself, without employing anyone (on any kind of contract) who does the core of that work.
• Translation has two rates. It is 17% when done personally as a free profession, and 15% otherwise.

Example: you invoice 10,000 PLN for software work in March 2026. At 12%, the ryczałt for March is 1,200 PLN. In practice it is a little less: half of the health contribution you paid is deducted from your revenue before the rate is applied (ryczałt act art. 11 ust. 1a).

The health contribution (składka zdrowotna) on ryczałt is a separate fixed monthly amount, set by revenue band. See the health contribution.

Why IT is usually 12%, and when it is 8.5%

The act has its own 12% line for IT. It lists these PKWiU codes (“ex” means only part of the code is covered):

So a freelance developer, a software consultant or a system administrator will almost always pay 12%.

The 8.5% rate is the fallback for service revenue that no other line mentions. IT work only reaches it when it falls outside the codes above: repairing computers, for example, is not on the 12% list. Other IT-related work goes to a higher rate, not a lower one. Data processing (ex 63.11.1) and software licensing (58.29.50.0) are 15%, and specialised design (74.1) is 14%.

Watch out: forums are full of “IT at 8.5%” advice. Whether your exact service falls outside the 12% codes is a classification question. Do not rely on a forum post: get an individual ruling (see the next section) before you pay 8.5%.

Your activity code in the register is a separate matter, covered in PKD codes for programmers.

How to check your own rate

The rate follows what you really do, not what is written in CEIDG (the public register of sole traders). Two lists are easy to confuse:

• PKD (Polska Klasyfikacja Działalności, the activity code) describes your business in the registers. Moving to a new PKD 2025 code does not change your rate: see PKD codes in 2025.
• PKWiU 2015 (Polska Klasyfikacja Wyrobów i Usług, the classification of goods and services) is the list the ryczałt act uses. This is the one that sets your rate.

Four steps:

1. Describe your service in one or two plain sentences: what you deliver, to whom, and how.
2. Find the matching PKWiU 2015 code in the classification browser of GUS (Statistics Poland), at klasyfikacje.stat.gov.pl.
3. Look for that code in art. 12 of the ryczałt act. If it is listed, that is your rate. If it is not, and you sell a service, the rate is 8.5%.
4. If two readings are possible, ask for an individual tax ruling (interpretacja indywidualna) from the Director of KIS (Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa, the national tax information service). You apply on the ORD-IN form.

The ruling costs 40 PLN for each separate set of facts, paid within 7 days of the application. It must be issued within 3 months (Tax Ordinance, Ordynacja podatkowa, art. 14d and 14f).

A ruling protects you in two ways:

• If you follow a ruling that is later changed, you are not charged late-payment interest or penalised (art. 14k).
• The fuller protection, not having to pay the missing tax at all, covers only events after the ruling was delivered (art. 14l and 14m). So ask before you start invoicing, not after.

Tip: for a quick first answer, call the KIS helpline: 801 055 055 from a landline, 22 330 03 30 from a mobile, or +48 22 330 03 30 from abroad. A phone answer is not binding; a written ruling is.

The 100,000 PLN step: who it applies to

Many people believe that every 8.5% business pays 12.5% above 100,000 PLN. It does not. The step is in art. 12 ust. 1 pkt 4 of the act (article 12, section 1, point 4) and covers only:

• renting out your own or leased property (PKWiU 68.20.1), renting out assets used in your business, and private rental outside a business;
• accommodation services (PKWiU 55);
• research and development (PKWiU 72);
• renting out cars, vans, other vehicles, boats, aircraft, containers and intellectual property (listed PKWiU 77 codes);
• residential social care (PKWiU 87).

For these, the first 100,000 PLN of revenue in the year is taxed at 8.5% and the rest at 12.5%. Business revenue and private rental each have their own 100,000 PLN. Spouses who agree that one of them pays tax on all their private rental get a 200,000 PLN step.

Example: your JDG earns 130,000 PLN in 2026 from renting out a flat. Ryczałt is 8.5% × 100,000 = 8,500 PLN, plus 12.5% × 30,000 = 3,750 PLN, so 12,250 PLN in total, before the health-contribution deduction.

A programmer, a tutor or anyone else selling ordinary services has no 100,000 PLN step at all.

Two kinds of work, two rates

You can earn at more than one rate in one business, for example 12% for coding and 8.5% for teaching. Each part is taxed at its own rate only if your revenue register (ewidencja przychodów) shows each kind of revenue separately.

If it does not, the act taxes everything at 8.5%, or at the highest rate above 8.5% that applies to any part of your revenue (12.5% for the step-list activities, even below 100,000 PLN). For example:

• a register that mixes coding and teaching is taxed at 12% on both;
• a register that mixes trade (3%) and manufacturing (5.5%) is taxed at 8.5% on both.

What happens if you used the wrong rate

The rate is not a choice you register, so there is no form to “change”. What matters is whether you paid the right amount.

• Too low: you owe the difference for every month or quarter concerned, with late-payment interest (odsetki za zwłokę). You fix it by paying the difference. If the annual PIT-28 (the ryczałt return) is already filed, you also file a correction (Tax Ordinance art. 81). See paying tax late.
• Too high: you have overpaid. A corrected PIT-28 shows the overpayment (nadpłata), which the tax office refunds.

Ryczałt is paid monthly by the 20th, or quarterly for smaller and new businesses. A 20th that falls on a weekend or holiday moves to the next working day: see tax deadlines for 2026. Komplet, our free Mac app, recognises tax transfers in PDF bank statements from any bank and groups them by period, so you can see which months you paid before you correct anything.

Will the rates change in 2027?

Not by law yet. As of 24 September 2026:

The draft limit would look at your 2026 revenue to decide who can stay on ryczałt in 2027. Watch it if you earn more than about 1 million PLN a year. In 2026 the limit is 2,000,000 EUR, which is 8,517,200 PLN of 2025 revenue.

What to do next

1. Write down what you actually sell and find its PKWiU 2015 code.
2. Match it against the table above and art. 12 of the ryczałt act.
3. If two rates look possible, ask KIS for an individual ruling (40 PLN) before you invoice at the lower one.
4. Keep your revenue register split by rate if you do more than one kind of work.
5. Compare ryczałt at your rate with the other tax options before the next deadline: choosing a tax form.