On Thursday 22 October, the Sejm – the lower house of the Polish parliament – passed an amendment to Poland's income tax laws. 240 MPs voted in favour, 58 against and 135 abstained. It is the biggest change to the tax scale in several years: instead of two rates (12% and 32%), there will be three. The changes are meant to take effect on 1 January 2027, but the bill still has to pass the Senate and be signed by the President.

What exactly changes

Today, under the standard tax scale, you pay 12% on income up to PLN 120,000 a year and jump straight to 32% on anything above that. Under the bill, from 2027 it will look like this:

• 12% – on income up to PLN 130,000 a year (the threshold rises by PLN 10,000),
• 24% – a new rate on income between PLN 130,000 and 150,000,
• 32% – only on income above PLN 150,000.

MPs also adopted an amendment by Ryszard Petru (Centrum party): from 2028, tax thresholds are to be indexed to inflation every year. That matters, because without it rising pay pushes more people into a higher bracket each year even when they are not actually better off in real terms.

The tax-free allowance (PLN 30,000) is not changed by this bill.

Who pays for it

The bill is not only a tax cut. From the start the government presented it as a package in which some taxpayers pay more:

• The solidarity levy on people earning over PLN 1 million a year rises from 4% to 5%. According to the Ministry of Finance, about 39,000 people paid it in 2024.
• The lump-sum tax on recorded revenue (ryczałt, a simplified regime popular with sole traders) – the revenue limit for choosing it falls from EUR 2 million to EUR 250,000 (about PLN 1.1 million). Anyone whose revenue exceeds EUR 300,000 during the year will pay 17% on the excess. This will hit many one-person businesses, which will have to switch to the standard scale or the flat tax.
• Corporate tax (CIT) for the largest companies – the government wanted to raise it from 19% to 22% for companies with revenue above EUR 50 million. However, the Sejm adopted an amendment by Petru and independent MP Janusz Kowalski that removed this increase from the bill.

Who gains, and from what salary

Important: the brackets apply to taxable income, not gross salary. For an employee, taxable income is gross pay minus social security contributions (ZUS, about 13.7%) and standard work-related costs (usually PLN 3,000 a year). That is why the PLN 120,000 income threshold corresponds to a salary of about PLN 11,900 gross a month.

Piotr Juszczyk, chief tax adviser at the accounting firm inFakt, calculated for Money.pl in August that the change becomes noticeable from about PLN 12,000 gross a month, and the full benefit applies from about PLN 14,800 gross. The maximum gain for an employee is about PLN 300 a month, or PLN 3,600 a year. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in August that about 3.5 million taxpayers would benefit next year.

If you earn less than about PLN 11,900 gross a month, the new brackets change nothing for you – you only pay 12% anyway.

Let's do the maths

Assume a standard employment contract, standard work-related costs and full social security contributions. The gain is the difference in tax between the current and the new scale.

1. Salary of PLN 10,000 gross (PLN 120,000 a year). Taxable income: about PLN 100,500 – below the threshold. Gain: PLN 0.
2. Salary of PLN 13,000 gross (PLN 156,000 a year). Taxable income: about PLN 131,600. Today you pay 32% on about PLN 11,600. After the change, PLN 10,000 drops to the 12% rate (a saving of PLN 2,000) and about PLN 1,600 to 24% (a saving of about PLN 129). Gain: about PLN 2,130 a year, or about PLN 177 a month.
3. Salary of PLN 16,000 gross (PLN 192,000 a year). Taxable income: about PLN 162,700, i.e. above PLN 150,000. You save 20 percentage points on PLN 10,000 (PLN 2,000) and 8 points on the next PLN 20,000 (PLN 1,600). Gain: PLN 3,600 a year, or PLN 300 a month.

A practical note: your employer only starts withholding the higher rate in the month in which your income since January crosses the threshold. So the gain is usually not spread evenly over 12 months – you will see it as higher take-home pay towards the end of the year, in the months when you currently "fall into" the 32% bracket.

Is it a done deal?

Not yet. The bill now goes to the Senate, which has up to 30 days. The President then has 21 days to sign or veto it. The Mentzen tax law firm points out that unfavourable tax changes for the following year should be published by 30 November, otherwise they may not make it in time for 1 January.

The uncertainty is real. Paweł Szefernaker, head of President Karol Nawrocki's office, criticised the government's plan in August: "We have complicated taxes? The government wants to make them even more complicated instead of raising the tax-free allowance". He said at the time that a veto seemed closer than a signature, but that "no decision has been made". The President's own bill, which would raise the threshold to PLN 140,000 for everyone – has been waiting in the Sejm since last year.

What you can do

• Check whether it affects you at all. Look at last year's tax return (the taxable income line). If it was below PLN 120,000, the new brackets will not change your tax.
• Don't spend money you don't have yet. Until the bill is signed, treat any gain as uncertain. Don't plan a new loan instalment around it.
• If you run a business on the lump-sum tax, do the maths now. With revenue above EUR 250,000, compare the standard scale and the flat tax for 2027 with your accountant. The choice of tax regime has to be made at the start of the year.
• Record your pay every month. When you log your salary in Money Trackrr, it is easy to spot the month in which your take-home pay rises or falls because of a tax threshold, and to plan a bigger payment towards a savings goal for that time.
• Set aside any gain in advance. If from 2027 you get, say, PLN 150–300 more, set up a standing transfer of that amount to savings before it "melts away" in everyday spending.

In short

• On 22 October, Poland's Sejm passed new income tax brackets: 12% up to PLN 130,000, 24% from PLN 130,000 to 150,000 and 32% above PLN 150,000 of taxable income.
• From 2028, thresholds are to be indexed to inflation every year; the tax-free allowance (PLN 30,000) stays the same.
• People earning from about PLN 12,000 gross a month gain – at most PLN 3,600 a year. The richest (5% levy) and some lump-sum businesses pay more; MPs dropped the corporate tax rise.
• It is not final yet: the bill awaits the Senate and the President's decision, and the changes are due to take effect on 1 January 2027.

Information material, not tax, financial or investment advice. The calculations are simplified (employment contract, standard costs, no other reliefs). The final wording of the law may still change in the Senate. As of 23 October 2026.

Sources: Money.pl – Sejm passes tax changes, vote results and comments, RMF24 – new tax brackets, amendments adopted, WNP.pl – PIT changes one step closer, Interia Biznes – solidarity levy, CIT and lump-sum tax, Farmer.pl – threshold indexation and amendments, Money.pl – who benefits, inFakt calculations (August 2026), Mentzen – timeline of work on the 2027 changes. Photo: Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash.