The VAT exemption limit in Poland in 2026: 240,000 PLN, and the day you lose it

In 2026 you can run a business in Poland without charging VAT as long as your sales stay under 240,000 PLN net a year. The limit went up from 200,000 PLN on 1 January 2026, so pages that still quote 200,000 are out of date. You lose the exemption on the exact sale that takes you over the limit, and you must register for VAT before that sale.

What the limit is, and who can use it

The exemption is called zwolnienie podmiotowe (the exemption for low turnover), and it sits in article 113 of the VAT Act. A business with its seat in Poland is VAT-exempt if its sales, without VAT, did not go over the limit in the previous year and do not go over it in the current year.

An exempt business:

• charges no VAT on its sales;
• cannot deduct the VAT on its costs;
• files no JPK_V7, the monthly VAT return;
• must issue an invoice when a client asks for one. The invoice is marked zw (exempt) and names the legal basis, for example art. 113 ust. 1 ustawy o VAT.

This is separate from the exemption for certain types of work, such as medical care or private tutoring, which applies whatever your turnover.

A one-off rule for 2026. A business based in Poland whose 2025 sales were between 200,000 and 240,000 PLN could use the exemption from 1 January 2026, without the usual year’s wait. The same applied to a business that started in 2025 and whose prorated 2025 sales fell in that range.

For foreigners: what matters is where the business is based, not your passport. A Polish JDG (sole trader business) run from Poland qualifies like any other. A company based in another EU country cannot use this limit; it has a separate EU scheme for small businesses instead.

Starting mid-year: the limit is cut by days

If you open your business during the year, you do not get the full 240,000 PLN. The limit is reduced in proportion to the days from your start to 31 December:

240,000 × days from your start to 31 December ÷ 365

The first two examples are the ones biznes.gov.pl gives; the others use the same formula. From your first full calendar year, the full 240,000 PLN applies.

Tip: before your first sale, estimate the net sales you will make until 31 December and compare them with your own limit, not with 240,000 PLN. If you expect to go over, register for VAT from the start instead of switching mid-year.

If you suspended your business

The law cuts the limit only for a business that starts during the year. A suspension (zawieszenie działalności, pausing your business) is not a start. On the wording of the Act, your limit for the year stays the full 240,000 PLN, and the sales you made before and after the pause add up towards it. No official page says this in so many words, so if your situation is unusual, ask the tax office’s KIS helpline (Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa) before relying on it.

Two things about VAT and suspension are settled:

• If your suspension lasts 6 months or more, the tax office removes you from the VAT register, unless you told it beforehand that you would keep making taxable transactions.
• When you resume, you are put back automatically with the status you had before, exempt or active, with no new VAT-R.

There is more on this in how to suspend a JDG.

What counts towards the limit

The limit counts sales made in Poland, plus exports and EU supplies of goods. These are not counted:

• the VAT itself;
• sales exempt because of their type (article 43, for example medical or educational services), with some exceptions for property and financial services;
• selling your own equipment or other assets you depreciate;
• some distance sales of goods taxed in another EU country.

Clients abroad

When you sell a service to a business abroad, it is normally taxed in the client’s country, so it stays outside the limit. That is how most accountants read the law; if foreign clients make up most of your turnover, confirm it with yours. Services to private individuals abroad are usually taxed in Poland, so they do count.

Watch out: selling services to EU businesses still means registering for VAT-UE (the EU VAT number with the PL prefix) and filing a VAT-UE summary for each month with such sales, even while you stay exempt. The same goes for buying foreign software or ads. See VAT-UE for Google, Adobe and AWS and invoicing a foreign client.

Work that can never be VAT-exempt

Some activities rule out the exemption from the first złoty, whatever your turnover:

• legal services;
• advisory services (doradztwo), except some agricultural advice;
• jewellery services;
• debt collection, including factoring;
• selling precious metals, excise goods (with a few exceptions), building land, new vehicles, and car or motorcycle parts;
• selling cosmetics, computers and electronics, electrical equipment or machinery online or at a distance.

“Advisory” is not defined in the law. Tax offices and courts use its ordinary meaning: giving expert advice and recommendations. IT, business, marketing or tax consulting usually falls under it. Pure implementation work, such as programming, design or translation, usually does not.

The line is drawn case by case. If your work mixes the two, an individual tax ruling (interpretacja indywidualna) is the only way to be sure.

The day you cross the limit

You do not lose the exemption at the end of the month or the year. You lose it with the sale that takes you over the limit, and that whole sale is taxed, not only the part above it.

Example: in 2026 you have sold 235,000 PLN, and your next invoice is for 10,000 PLN. That invoice takes you to 245,000 PLN, so all 10,000 PLN of it carries VAT, and so does every sale after it.

What to do:

1. Keep a running total of your sales for the year. Watch it closely once you pass about 80% of your limit (192,000 PLN for a full year).
2. File VAT-R, the VAT registration form, with your tax office before the sale that crosses the limit. Filing is free; the 170 PLN fee is only for an optional paper certificate.
3. From that sale on, issue invoices with VAT (23% for most freelance services). File JPK_V7M by the 25th of the following month, or the next working day if the 25th falls on a weekend or public holiday. For your first 12 months as an active VAT payer you cannot file quarterly. The tax deadlines for 2026 list every date.
4. Tell your clients. Business clients who deduct VAT will not mind. Private clients will pay more, or you will earn less.

If you notice too late, the VAT on the sales from the crossing onwards is due whether or not you charged it. Talk to your accountant straight away about correcting the invoices and returns.

When you can be exempt again

Once you have lost or given up the exemption, you can go back only after a full calendar year. Lose it in 2026, and the earliest you can be exempt again is 1 January 2028. Closing your JDG and opening a new one does not reset this.

Should you register for VAT voluntarily?

You can give up the exemption at any time by filing VAT-R before the start of the month from which you want to charge VAT (for a new business, before your first sale). It usually makes sense when:

• your clients are VAT-registered businesses: the 23% on your invoice costs them nothing, because they deduct it, and some prefer VAT invoices;
• you have large costs with VAT on them, such as equipment, software or a car;
• you sell mainly services abroad, since you can then reclaim Polish VAT on the costs linked to them;
• you buy a lot of foreign services, where VAT is a real 23% cost for an exempt business but usually neutral for an active one.

It rarely pays when most of your clients are private individuals: your prices go up by 23%, or your income goes down.

Being an active VAT payer also means a JPK_V7 return every month, and that is usually where an accountant comes in. Komplet, our free Mac app, files each invoice into the right month and prepares the month’s documents for your accountant.

What to do next

1. Check your work against the never-exempt list. If it is there, register for VAT before your first sale.
2. Work out your limit for 2026: 240,000 PLN, or the prorated figure if you started in 2026.
3. Add up the net sales that count towards the limit so far, and check the total every month.
4. If you are going to cross the limit, file VAT-R before the sale that does it.
5. Exempt or not, issue your business invoices in KSeF, the national e-invoicing system: see KSeF explained.